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One in four (27%) workers admit to having lied to their boss to take a day off and deal with mental health concerns, according to a study conducted by employment site Seek.

Meanwhile, 44% of respondents said they have never gone on a “mental health day” while 66% said they wanted to take some time off to do so.

There is a need for organisations to provide proper mental health support to employees, the study found. Results showed only 37% of companies offer workplace policies for mental illnesses.

Janet Faulding, general manager of Seek NZ, said organisations are still in the early stages of implementing policies on mental health.

“I think really there’s still a stigma about mental health and that’s why [awareness] like this is really important – to highlight the importance of mental wellbeing,” Faulding said.

“I think employees still don’t feel comfortable about revealing something that’s so personal, particularly if they think their company doesn’t have any policies in place, and if the company does, they don’t know how to access them,” Faulding said. “The process of requesting those mental health days is still really low.”

Of the workers surveyed, only 10% said they were aware that their workplace had a policy on mental health available to them.

Faulding stressed that it is absolutely vital for organisations to have mental health policies in the workplace.