Founder Reports surveyed 2,000 U.S.-based working adults to understand how often work affects their wellbeing, who they can actually turn to when it does, and what they do to conceal the strain from the people they work with.

The survey covered five areas: how often work affects workers’ wellbeing, who they can be completely honest with, whether their employer offers mental health support and whether they’ve used it, whether they’ve turned to an AI chatbot instead, and which specific concealment behaviors they’ve engaged in over the past year. Because every one of these was measured in the same respondents, the report can trace a single worker’s strain, support options, and concealment choices at the individual level.

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What’s Inside the Report

Companies talk about wellbeing constantly, but recognition isn’t the same as access. This report looks at what workers actually do when the job starts wearing on them, and finds that concealment is the norm, formal support goes largely unused, and workers increasingly reach for AI before they’ll turn to anyone at their own company.

Download the free report for full details, including:

• Roughly 1 in 5 workers is carrying weekly or daily work-related distress with no formal support, no one internal to talk to, and no AI outlet.
• 75.2% of workers did at least one thing to hide work-related distress in the past year, and only 10.8% told a manager or HR representative.
• 38.8% of workers called in sick in the past year and gave a fake reason. Among workers stressed daily, that rises to 52.3%.
• 42.6% of workers have used an AI chatbot to talk through work stress, compared to just 10.7% who have ever used their employer’s mental health support, nearly a 4-to-1 ratio.
• As work stress rises, comfort confiding in a manager falls from 26.6% to 12.3%, while comfort confiding in an AI chatbot climbs from 9.2% to 28.9%. We call this the trust crossover.
• 38.8% of workers say their employer offers no mental health support, and another 11.2% aren’t sure it exists.
• Benefit usage stays nearly flat as stress rises (21.8% to 23.0%), while AI use climbs from 38.3% to 52.9% over the same range.
• Women report higher strain than men, with 50.0% affected weekly or daily compared to 43.7% of men, and are more likely to have taken a fake sick day (41.0% vs. 35.6%).
• Leaders conceal distress at the same rate as individual contributors (76.7% vs. 76.0%), but turn to AI far more often (50.2% vs. 39.3%).

About the Survey

Founder Reports surveyed 2,000 employed adults in the United States in July 2026 to examine the relationship between work strain, the support channels available to workers, and the behaviors they use to conceal what they’re going through. The survey carried a neutral title with no reference to AI, mental health, or stigma, so respondents weren’t primed toward any of the study’s themes before answering.

The full report includes the complete methodology, regression analysis, and demographic breakdowns by age, sex, employment type, seniority, and tenure, along with charts for each finding.

The report is free to download. If you cite any of the data, we ask that you link back to this page.

For media inquiries, interview requests, or questions about the data, contact marc@founderreports.com.

Research by Founder Reports (founderreports.com)

The photo at the top of this page is by YuriArcurs Peopleimages / Depositphotos.