R U OK? Day has been a longstanding campaign in Australia, taking place on the second Thursday of every September for the past 16 years. This year, the message is clear: while R U OK? Day comes once a year, the time to ask the question is every day, all year.
“Ask R U OK? Any Day,” this year’s campaign implores, “because life happens every day.”
No one understands this better, perhaps, than Australia’s working parents.
A Daily Question for a Year-Round Crisis
Throughout the country, parental wellbeing is in a state of crisis. Half of today’s working parents experience anxiety—double the rate recorded just a decade ago—with many also reporting symptoms of depression and chronic stress.
Among the catalysts: increasing difficulty balancing work, family, and personal responsibilities. Nearly two-thirds of working parents (66 percent) now report feeling stressed about this juggling act—up from less than half (43 percent) in 2019—while nearly 50 percent cite the struggle to manage their own health and wellbeing as the “most challenging aspect” of maintaining work-life balance.
The underlying message is clear: while the workplace has made great strides toward becoming more family-friendly in recent years—with flexible work policies now the norm, inclusive leave policies gaining ground, and greater recognition of caregiver needs—critical shortcomings remain. One of which is the failure to ask parents, “Are you okay?” and make sure they feel safe, valued, and supported at work.
When ‘Family-Friendly’ is in Name Only
In two reports released just last year, working parents highlighted the lack of support they continue to confront at work. While 75 percent describe their employer as “family-friendly,” the facts tell a different story: at least half report feeling judged—or worry their commitment to their job is questioned—when they make use of so-called “family-friendly” policies. 67 percent say they’re made to feel as though they’re letting their teams down when they leave work to handle child-related emergencies, while 41 percent feel judged by their peers or managers due to their parental responsibilities.
With these figures in mind, it’s no surprise that parents are struggling to care for their own health and wellbeing. Without the psychological safety and interpersonal support needed to speak up, ask for help, and bring one’s full self to work, many parents are left feeling pressured to keep their struggles to themselves, to put work before their families’ and their own needs, and carry on in silence—exacerbating their already poor mental health.
The Hidden Toll of Child Wellbeing
The ongoing youth mental health crisis only adds to their stress. According to research led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, nearly three-quarters of adolescents in Australia (ages 10 to 18) experience clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety—most of which are chronic.
Parents of children with mental health conditions like anxiety and depression are significantly more likely to face mental health challenges of their own—alongside elevated rates of burnout, diminished work performance, and chronic health issues like sleep disturbances and fatigue.
In short: when child wellbeing suffers, so does parental wellbeing. Employers’ failure to recognize and account for this is yet another shortcoming cited by parents as a major source of their distress. While more than half want access to professional help for their child, fewer than one in four feel satisfied with available support. The result: three-quarters of children and adolescents with mental health disorders go without the care they need.
As parent and child wellbeing deteriorates, workplaces also take the hit. With 70 percent of parents facing performance issues, 67 percent experiencing burnout, and one in three considering leaving their jobs—or the workforce entirely—due to the difficulty of balancing demands, it’s clear that unless employers take meaningful action to improve support for working parents, caregivers, and their families, the costs will be severe.
4 Resources for Employers
So what can employers do?
Fortunately, Workplace Options (WPO) equips organizations with the insight and support they need to cultivate inclusive, family-friendly environments:
Solution #1: The Center for Organizational Effectiveness (COE)
As the R U OK? Day campaign emphasizes, supporting wellbeing starts with asking the simple question of, “Are you okay?”
This can be done not only in the most literal sense—by checking in with employees one-on-one to see how they’re doing—but also in broader, more systemic ways. Leaders can “ask the question” at scale by conducting organizational assessments, launching anonymous pulse surveys, fostering psychologically safe environments, and creating spaces for connection through employee resource groups (ERGs) or networks (ERNs).
This is exactly what the Center for Organizational Effectiveness (COE), powered by WPO, helps organizations achieve. Leveraging decades of expertise in psychosocial risk, psychological safety, DEI, and employee wellbeing, the COE partners with organizations to build cultures of trust, collaboration, and innovation—using people-first, data-driven strategies that drive sustainable impact and meaningful support for teams.
With the help of the COE, leaders can design targeted surveys and assessments that speak to the core challenges parents and caregivers face in the workplace—gaining insight into what they need to thrive. From there, they can collaborate with experts to develop inclusive, responsive policies that address those identified barriers to success and wellbeing.
Through extensive training and coaching on fostering psychological safety, moreover, leaders can also begin to recognize and address their own blind spots—particularly those rooted in internalized stigma around parenthood, parental leave, and flexible work. In doing so, they create not just policy change, but cultural change—where support for working parents is both seen and deeply felt.
For more information about the COE, visit https://consulting.workplaceoptions.com/.
Solution #2: New Parent Return to Work
For many—but especially new—parents, work can be a tremendous source of guilt. A recent report from Real Insurance reveals that nine in 10 working parents have experienced parental guilt, largely due to not being able to spend enough time with their children or not being able to meet the level of commitment they believe their role demands.
WPO’s New Parent Return to Work program was designed with these concerns in mind—offering tailored support to help parents confidently navigate the return to work and all the emotional and practical challenges that come with it.
With personalized guidance on how to collaborate with managers and peers on a realistic plan of transition—alongside expert support for other key considerations like securing childcare, managing time effectively, and preparing for emotional hurdles like parental guilt—the New Parent Return to Work program helps ease the transition back to work, and set parents up for long-term success both at work and at home.
When parents are actively involved in planning their leave and return, their confidence and self-efficacy—both as parents and employees—increases. This helps reduce stress, anxiety, and guilt, while reassuring them that they are supported by a truly family-friendly workplace.
For more information about New Parent Return to Work, visit https://www.workplaceoptions.com/au/wellbeing_solutions/new-parent-return-to-work/.
Solution #3: Child and Family Wellbeing
Since asking parents how they are—and what they need—requires truly listening to the answer, support for child and family wellbeing becomes essential.
The WPO Child and Family Wellbeing program was developed in response to the growing number of parents who report seeking help for their children’s mental and emotional health. The program offers counseling, coaching, and resource support to help families confidently navigate common challenges such as:
- Managing childhood anxiety and depression
- Supporting children through divorce or family transitions
- Boosting academic performance and social confidence
- Accessing pediatric and parental counseling
- Locating specialists for behavioral health needs
To ensure relevance, continuity, and effectiveness of care, each case begins with a comprehensive evaluation by a licensed pediatric clinician, followed by ongoing case management throughout families’ engagement with the program.
By equipping parents with the support and confidence they need to manage their family’s health and wellbeing, the program ultimately helps them achieve a healthier work-life balance—and feel more valued and capable, both as parents and as employees.
For more information about Child and Family Wellbeing, visit https://www.workplaceoptions.com/child-family-wellbeing/.
Solution #4: Global Learning Solutions
A truly inclusive workplace starts with an informed workforce. Creating a culture of care—where all employees feel truly seen and heard—requires comprehensive training to ensure leaders, managers, and peers possess the skills and knowledge they need to proactively support peers and minimize harm.
When asked how employers can better support their caregiving employees, 34 percent of working parents and caregivers pointed to family-specific training for managers and their teams. WPO’s Global Learning Solutions catalogue helps employers deliver exactly that.
Featuring instructional learning engagements, live workshops, and pre-recorded training sessions on a range of wellbeing topics—including “Discovering Unconscious Bias” and “Mental Health – Recognize and Respond,” for employees and managers, as well as “Caring for You While Caring for Others,” “Overcoming Parental and Caregiver Guilt,” and “Parental and Caregiver Leave – A Smooth Transition” for parents and caregivers—WPO’s Global Learning Solutions empower every team member to contribute to a safe and inclusive work environment—taking care of themselves and each other.
To explore this year’s full catalogue of training programs, visit https://www.workplaceoptions.com/training/global-learning-solutions-catalogue/.
Caring For You While Caring For Others: A FREE Live Webinar in Honor of R U OK? Day
In recognition of R U OK? Day—and the everyday struggle of working parents to maintain their own health and wellbeing—WPO is hosting a free, live half-hour webinar on “Caring for You While Caring for Others.”
Drawing from WPO’s Global Learning Solutions training, this session will provide simple, effective strategies to help carers manage stress, enhance self-care, and achieve better work-life balance.
In just 30 minutes, attendees will learn how to:
- Recognize the emotional impact of caregiving and how it affects wellbeing, relationships, and daily life
- Identify and apply strategies to support their own wellbeing while caring for others
- Build a personal wellbeing toolkit with practical tools to manage stress and maintain balance
- Locate and access caregiver-specific resources, services, and support networks
- Reflect on their caregiving journey and how it shapes their identity, values, and connections
This live event will take place on Thursday, 11 September, from 12:00 to 12:30 PM AEST and will be co-hosted by James Callendar, Business Solutions Director ANZ at WPO, who brings over 12 years of experience in developing global mental wellbeing programs, and Larissa Qin, a qualified mental health practitioner with extensive experience as an EAP counsellor and wellbeing trainer.
Individual registration is required to receive a personal access link. Sign up now at https://www.bigmarker.com/workplace-options/sustain-and-support-maintaining-your-wellbeing-while-caring-for-others-training-id-187128.
