Chronic Mental Illnesses at Work: Flexibility and Trust Key to Success

More than 20% of Americans will bediagnosed with mental illness in their lifetimes. They will, that is, experience conditions that influence the way they think, feel and act—and that may initially seem incompatible with the demands of work. Our new research suggests that what people living with chronic mental illnesses need most to succeed at work is for their managers to be flexible and trust them. This includes the freedom to adjust their schedules and workloads to make their jobs more compatible with their efforts to manage and treat their symptoms. For that to happen, managers need to trust that these workers are committed to their jobs and their employers. We'remanagementprofessorswho reviewed hundreds of blog and Reddit posts and conducted in-depth interviews with 59 people. And those are the most significant findings from our peer-reviewed study, published in the October 2025 issue of theAcademy of Management Journal.