Six in 10 (61 per cent) Canadian workers report showing up while mentally or physically unwell at least once a week, according to the latest mental-health index by Telus Health.
The survey, which polled 3,000 respondents, found the average mental-health score among Canadian workers was 63.1, virtually unchanged from September 2025 (63.2). For nearly four years, anxiety (55.5) has consistently ranked as the lowest mental-health sub-score, followed by isolation (58.8), work productivity (60.8), depression (61.2), optimism (65.8) and financial risk (66.3). General psychological health (71.8) remains the highest performing mental-health measure as of February 2026, the survey noted.
Three in 10 (29 per cent) workers reported a mental-health score of 50 or lower and the productivity loss of this group is at least 2.5-times the number of lost workdays among workers with a mental-health score of 80 or higher (22 per cent). It also found workers who show up unwell twice a week lose three-times more working days annually than those who say they never do.
Workers who never work while unwell (39 per cent) reported an average mental-health score of 77.6, more than 14 points higher than the national average. The survey noted workers aged 50 and older are more than twice as likely as workers aged 40 and younger to report never working while unwell. Similarly, non-parents were 60 per cent more likely than parents to report never working while unwell.
More than one in three employees said they’re considering leaving or uncertain about staying with their organization and workers who are actively considering leaving lose 20 more days of productivity per year than those who aren’t.
The survey found a third (34 per cent) of all workers are at a high mental-health risk, 44 per cent have a moderate mental-health risk and 22 per cent have a low mental-health risk. Notably, nearly six years after the launch of the index in April 2020, the proportion of workers in the high-risk group is unchanged.
Read: Absences, presenteeism costing employers nearly $645 million annually: report