Employees who are carers in the workplace: how can we better support them? Insights from Marylise Jacottin

Emilie, could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your work, as well as the
What areas do you support businesses with?

Mental health in the workplace is a subject that is particularly close to my heart because
Behind the terms «stress», «burnout» and «well-being at work» lie, above all,
people. And I’m a firm believer in prevention: don’t wait until someone is in
at the end of his tether before taking action.
Today, as a Senior HR Consultant and mental health expert at Humanys
Solutions: I support businesses in addressing issues relating to stress, mental health and
preventing burnout. My role involves working in a number of
levels: raising awareness amongst staff and providing them with training, whilst equipping them with practical tools to
to help them better understand and manage their stress, but also to train managers and supervisors in
issues relating to psychosocial risks, in particular to enable them to better recognise
the first signs of vulnerability within their own teams. I support
also encourage businesses to consider what aspects of the working environment might
protect or, on the contrary, undermine mental health.
This interview comes at a particularly opportune moment, given that this month
October is a key period for raising awareness of mental health, particularly in relation to
World Mental Health Day on 10 October. It is an opportunity to raise awareness of
The issue is on the table, but my main hope is that we will gradually manage to
to talk about it all year round, just as naturally as we talk about physical health today.

In your opinion, what are the main factors that influence the well-being of
employees within a company?

Workload is often the first thing that springs to mind. It is obviously important, but it is
far from being the only factor. Among the factors that carry particular weight is the lack of
recognition, the feeling of having no control over one’s work, or even a
unsupportive management. Conversely, one may go through a period at work that is very
intense without necessarily being a bad thing, provided you feel supported and valued, and provided you have
a certain degree of flexibility.
This is a point I emphasise strongly: well-being at work is not just
an individual responsibility. We can learn to breathe more effectively and to take a step back
or to manage stress, and whilst these are useful tools, they will never make up for
a working environment that constantly generates excessive workload,
a sense of insecurity or a loss of meaning.
True prevention therefore involves addressing both aspects: providing resources to
individuals and influence the organisation.

How to recognise the early signs of stress that is becoming a problem,
at home or at a colleague’s house?

Stress isn’t the problem in itself. We need it: it enables us to react, to
to adapt, to mobilise our resources. The problem arises when
our body remains in «alert» mode for too long and is no longer really able to
recover.
The early warning signs are often quite trivial, and that is precisely why we
to put it simply: we sleep less well, we become more irritable, we dwell on things more, we have more
difficulty concentrating; you feel constantly tired or tense. Some people start
whilst some withdraw into themselves, others become much more perfectionist or work even harder
more. With a colleague, I’d mainly look at the changes. Someone who is very
a sociable person who has started to eat lunch alone every time, someone who usually
a calm person who becomes very irritable, makes more mistakes or forgets things, and feels tired, which seems
settling in… Obviously, a single sign is not enough to conclude that someone is unwell.
But a pattern that develops or a change that persists deserves our attention.

What practical measures can HR and managers put in place to
How can we prevent burnout and promote mental health at work?

The first step would probably be to stop viewing mental health solely as
as an issue to address when someone is already struggling. Prevention starts long
earlier. It involves managers who have been trained to recognise the warning signs and to know
initiating a dialogue when they are concerned about a colleague. It also involves a
a realistic workload, clear priorities and, above all, an environment in which it is
possible to talk about difficulties without fear of being seen as vulnerable or less
high-performance.
I also place great emphasis on consistency. A company may offer
training on stress management, a helpline or a week dedicated to wellbeing;
if, at the same time, staff receive messages late in the evening and work
If they are constantly under pressure or don’t dare admit that they are overwhelmed, the message loses some of its
much of its credibility.
HR therefore has an important role to play, but so do managers, because health
Mental health is very much shaped by everyday life: by the way we set priorities,
where we respond to a mistake, share the workload or welcome someone who says
«I just can't manage it anymore.».
Sometimes they’re just tiny little interactions. But when they’re repeated every day, they eventually
to foster a culture.

As we approach 2027, what developments do you think are essential to improve
How can we promote well-being and mental health in the workplace in the long term?

I would like us to gradually move away from a view of well-being at work that is centred on
solely on the individual.
For a long time, we have taught our staff a great deal about how to become more
resilient, to manage their stress more effectively, to set their boundaries. All of this has its place. But if a
No one should have to constantly rely on tools just to cope with everyday life
As a professional, it may also be worth considering the environment in which she works.
For me, the next step is this: moving away from an approach where we mainly ask
enables individuals to adapt to a genuine organisational approach to prevention.
This involves better assessing psychosocial risks, training managers, and having the courage to
to examine workload, management styles, hyper-connectivity and even the
psychological security. And with the widespread adoption of AI and the acceleration of
With the changing nature of work, this vigilance will become even more important. Technology
can save us a great deal of time, but this saving will only be meaningful if it improves
truly our way of working, rather than simply enabling us to do more of it
more and more.

Conclusion

Supporting employees who are carers is a human, managerial and organisational challenge. As Marylise Jacottin points out, it is in companies’ best interests to make existing support schemes more accessible, to train their managers and to anticipate difficulties before they turn into emergencies.

A structured approach enables us to provide better support for staff whilst ensuring business continuity and maintaining collective performance.

Thank you to Marylise Jacottin for sharing her experience and shedding light on an HR issue that is still all too often overlooked.