Monday morning, the calendar is already full, the mind already running on empty. Yet the first email gets answered, a friendly hello is exchanged by the coffee machine, a smile goes up that nobody questions. From the outside, it looks like an entirely normal day. In reality, 83 percent of people in Austria keep working even when they are thoroughly exhausted.¹ At first glance, that looks like reliability. In fact, it is the most expensive symptom of workplace stress, because it never shows up in any sick-leave statistic. Most of this cost isn't hiding in missed days. It's hiding in what happens between the lines: performance that quietly slips, and people who are present but have already downshifted on the inside.
Key Takeaways
Presenteeism accounts for nearly 87 percent of stress-related productivity losses, not sick days.
In Austria, around 69 percent of the extra costs of mental illness come from lost performance, not treatment.³
Across the EU, the total cost of mental illness exceeds €600 billion a year, about 4 percent of GDP.²
Three out of four people in Austria haven't discussed their mental health with anyone at work in the past year.¹
For 54 percent of people in Austria, mental health support is now an important factor when choosing an employer.¹
Bründl Sports saved around €1.2 million in a single year through an Employee Assistance Program, once leaders started using it openly themselves.⁵
The Bill Nobody Sees
Sick leave is easy to put a number on: days, costs, a total. Presenteeism, working through exhaustion, resists that simple arithmetic, even though it shapes it more than anything else. A major UK study of over 26,000 employees shows just how far the balance has shifted: in 2023, actual absence cost an average of only 6.1 working days, compared with 43.6 days lost to presenteeism.⁴ That's nearly nine weeks of someone sitting at their desk without really being there. You don't notice it as a day off in the calendar. You notice it in the email that has to be read twice, the meeting where someone just nods along, the decision that takes one night longer than usual. How closely missed days and mental strain are linked is shown in the article "Depression as a Cause of Absenteeism".
Austria: When Exhaustion Becomes Routine
The Mavie Stress Study 2026 shows that work is by far the biggest source of stress for people in Austria, ahead of financial worries and their own health.¹ And when people show up exhausted anyway, the most common reason is financial necessity. Two very human reasons follow close behind: women disproportionately report feeling guilty toward colleagues, while men more often say they simply don't want to appear weak.¹ Neither is a rational calculation. Both come down to the quiet sense that calling in sick isn't really an option. A quarter of respondents notice a clear drop in their own performance due to stress, but don't tell anyone about it.¹
The Real Cost Sits in Performance, Not Sick Leave
These aren't abstract numbers; they're ordinary days that add up. An Austrian study in the European Journal of Health Economics puts a figure on it: people with a mental illness generate around €5,411 in additional costs per person each year, nearly 69 percent of which comes from lost performance rather than treatment.³ The doctor's bill, in other words, is the smaller part of the story. At the European level, the same pattern repeats on a much larger scale: the total cost of mental illness across the EU exceeds €600 billion a year, roughly 4 percent of GDP.² That money isn't spent in doctors' offices. It's lost in meetings that go worse than they should, and in good employees who, even when they want to, can't quite bring their best selves to work. How much this adds up to overall is shown in the article "What Disengaged Employees Really Cost a Company".
Silence Is the Costliest Side Effect
What makes this cost so stubborn isn't just that it stays invisible, it's that so few people talk about it. Only 14 percent of people in Austria seek professional support for stress, fewer than the year before.¹ Three out of four haven't discussed their mental health with anyone at work in the past year.¹ And when it comes down to it, two-thirds would rather not show vulnerability to their own manager, even when the stress comes directly from the job.¹ It's the familiar fear of being seen as weak or overwhelmed. The only difference is that this fear has become so common it's practically the norm. One small but telling detail shows just how deep this reluctance runs: when it comes to talking about mental strain, people now trust their own manager only slightly more than an AI tool.¹ Not because the need isn't there, but because for many, taking that first step toward a human conversation still feels too big.
What Changes When Someone Takes the First Step
For employers, that's not a reason for resignation, it's a real point of leverage. For 54 percent of people in Austria, mental health support has become an important factor when choosing a new employer.¹ What usually goes unsaid at someone's current job suddenly becomes very concrete the moment they think about leaving. At premium sports retailer Bründl Sports, the right attitude alone made a real difference. An Employee Assistance Program had been open to everyone from the start, but it was only truly used once individual managers openly shared in a workshop that they themselves had already had a counseling conversation.⁵ From there, uptake spread through the company like, as the CEO himself put it, "a positive virus." Sick days per employee dropped from 8.6 to 7.5, a saving of around €1.2 million in a single year.⁵ It wasn't the program alone that made the difference, but the signal sent by a manager who was visibly taking care of their own mental health. How an Employee Assistance Program actually pays off is shown in the key ROI figures for calculating EAP value.
The Point Where It Changes
As a manager or employer, you're not just responsible for the numbers, you're responsible for people. People who try, every day, to get through it well, often more quietly than anyone notices. This silent cost already exists in your organization today, whether or not it's ever spoken about. The real decision isn't whether it's there. It's whether it stays invisible. A low-threshold, confidential offer like an Employee Assistance Program isn't just another line item in the benefits catalog. It's the first concrete step toward turning silent stress back into visible, healthy performance. Alongside the right offer, it sometimes starts with the same simple gesture as at Bründl Sports: a manager who talks about it openly. Anyone who still needs to make the case internally will find support in the 4 arguments to convince your leadership team of EAP.
