SHRM26 Debrief · Health & Wellness · #1336

Unwell at Work: Addressing the Health Challenges No One Talks About

with Dr Justine Roper

▶ Watch on the SHRM portal ~88 min, distilled

workplace health disclosuremenopause and perimenopausepelvic floor dysfunction

"Your workforce isn't underperforming because of poor strategy or weak talent. Many of them are underperforming because their bodies are breaking down in ways no wellness app... no EAP benefit, and no resilience training has actually addressed."

What it was about

Employee underperformance, absenteeism, and turnover are frequently mislabeled as talent or engagement problems. In reality they're often undiagnosed or undisclosed health issues, and workplaces hold far more power than they realize to either suppress or support disclosure and care.

By the numbers

$322 billion

annual productivity loss due to burnout

10x

more cost from presenteeism (underperforming while at work) than from absence

6 times

more likely a burnt-out employee is to leave

Key notes

Ask three audit questions of your workforce: what health conditions are affecting our people, which ones are people afraid to disclose, and what is non-disclosure costing us in dollars and time.
Build a visible, printed organizational disclaimer stating that employees dealing with health conditions (menopause, prostate issues, chronic pain, etc.) are encouraged to discuss modifications with HR or managers.
Train managers specifically on how to have disclosure conversations with empathy, building psychological safety so employees don't fear career penalty or embarrassment.

The contrarian takeAccording to the speaker, retention and performance problems HR typically treats as strategy, culture, or talent issues are primarily underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed health issues. The fix isn't better performance management, it's disclosure culture and health infrastructure.

Take this back Monday

Do this for your team

Post a visible HR notice inviting employees to discuss health-related work modifications (menopause, chronic pain, etc.) with managers confidentially.

Say this in your next leadership meeting

40% of employees with chronic conditions delay care to avoid disrupting work, so our absenteeism and turnover numbers may really be undiagnosed health costs.

Watch out for

Treating health-driven performance decline (absenteeism, forgetfulness, missed meetings) as a performance or engagement problem instead of a health problem.
Building wellness programs and EAP benefits without first establishing psychological safety, so utilization stays low (e.g., only 3% platform usage).
Assuming a hysterectomy or other procedure 'solves' a health issue rather than anticipating ongoing symptoms like leakage or pelvic pressure.

Fun fact · Dr Justine Roper

She's a certified marathon run coach who also runs a pelvic-floor therapy clinic, blending endurance training with women's health care.

If this landed, see these

↳ Go deeperStop Demanding Fruit from Dead Soil: A Repair-First Approach to BurnoutExtends the health-not-character reframe into burnout, with a repair-first fix instead of resilience talk.⇄ The counterpointSeven Steps for Perfecting Your DocumentationPushes the opposite lever: rigorous documentation, not empathetic disclosure, as the liability shield.✦ The unexpected oneEmotional Intelligence Is a System Skill That Makes Work WorkSame diagnosis from a different angle: fix the system, not the individual, and the numbers move.