In the quiet hum of crisis meetings, the endless pings of “Have you got 5 minutes?”, and the emotionally charged work that no one else wants to touch, HR is there. Holding space. Holding accountability. Holding everyone else together.

But who holds HR?

The 2025 HR Mental Wellbeing Report makes the situation impossible to ignore:

• 73% of HR professionals are experiencing symptoms of depression.

• 75% report anxiety.

• 63% are “very likely” experiencing burnout.

• And 87% say support at work is insufficient.

This is no longer a wellbeing issue, it’s a resilience crisis. One that has knock-on effects across culture, leadership, retention and performance. And while the world expects HR to keep solving the problems... who’s solving this one?

At thesmia.ai, we’ve built a tool that doesn’t just offer generic “wellbeing advice”. It provides practical support grounded in real-life HR challenges—from securing senior leadership buy-in, to navigating emotional exhaustion, to taking action even when the system feels broken.

The Emotional Toll HR Can No Longer Ignore

Whether you're managing a complex restructure, investigating harassment claims, or simply trying to do the job of three people, HR roles are soaked in emotional labour.

You’re expected to be impartial, composed, ethical, strategic and compassionate. Often all in one day.

• HR professionals are breaking under the weight.
• And the most common reason? Lack of support from above.

How HR Can Push Back—and Get the Support It Deserves

This isn’t about “resilience training” or inspirational posters in the kitchen. It’s about changing the power dynamic, making the invisible workload visible, and using the tools available to reclaim space and sanity.

1. Use Thesmia to Get Leadership Buy-In for Your Needs

HR often fights for everyone else's wellbeing, but now it’s time to fight for your own. Thesmia includes a powerful set of Senior Leadership Buy-In prompts designed to help you influence upwards without burning bridges.

Use prompts like:

• “Sustaining Buy-In for an Ongoing HR Programme” – ideal for keeping leadership engaged with initiatives like mental health support, supervision, or wellbeing budgets.

• “Convincing Leaders to Invest in More HR Resource” – essential when burnout is rising and your team is underwater.

• “Buy-In for a New Process or Project” – perfect for launching new support mechanisms (think HR peer supervision, psychological safety frameworks, or reflective practice sessions).

📌 These prompts are not just for performance reviews—they’re for protecting your team from burnout and demanding recognition for the emotional labour you carry.

2. Ask Thesmia the Hard Questions About Your Own Wellbeing

Thesmia isn’t a mental health app, but it is built to support HR professionals with complex, emotionally charged situations.

You can ask:

• “How do I protect my wellbeing when managing redundancies?”

• “How can I set better boundaries in a demanding HR role?”

• “How do I explain to my CEO that HR is burnt out too?”

Thesmia is trained to give best-practice, evidence-backed answers, without the waffle, and with practical advice that actually works in HR’s context.

Because sometimes, just having language for what you're experiencing is the start of recovery.

3. Don’t Wait for Permission—Petition for Reform

The report calls for systemic change, not just individual coping mechanisms.

So use your voice. Thesmia can help you frame conversations and emails to:

• Push for HR supervision as standard.

• Petition organisations like CIPD to embed mental health standards into the profession.

• Challenge C-suite assumptions about what HR can reasonably absorb.

Want to go further? Thesmia can help you write:

• Internal proposals for psychological safety frameworks.

• Business cases for dedicated HR wellbeing budgets.

• Presentations for the board on the cost of burnout in the people function.

4. Use Your Data to Drive Change (Not Just Compliance)

HR is rich in data, but too often, we’re too overwhelmed to use it strategically.

Thesmia can help turn your:

• Exit interview themes into clear calls for resource.

• Absence rates into business cases.

• EAP uptake into indicators of deeper organisational strain.

It’s not about “defending” your role. It’s about making invisible load visible, with evidence that can’t be ignored.

You Are HR. But You Are Also Human.

Too many HR professionals believe that struggling is a sign of weakness, or that “help” means stepping out of the leadership lane. That’s the lie that’s keeping too many people suffering in silence.

This is your permission slip to say: enough.

Thesmia is here to support HR with the emotional and strategic weight of your role, because you shouldn’t have to carry it alone.

Let’s Build a Future Where HR Is Supported Too

Because if we keep burning out the people holding the culture together, eventually, there won’t be anything left to hold.