Mental Health in Later Working Life: The Hidden Pressure Facing Construction Leaders
Barbra Carlisle • February 12, 2026
The Silent Strain Behind Senior Leadership and how to manage it
If you're a business owner or senior leader in housing, construction or engineering, you already know the pressures change as you get older but they don't reduce.
Many leaders in their 50s and 60s carry the weight of legacy, succession, and commercial delivery, all while managing the physical and emotional toll of decades in a high‑pressure industry. There is also the family pressures - caring for elderly parents and being a good parent to your children if you have them. Seems never ending.
And despite progress in the sector, data now shows mental ill‑health in construction remains at crisis levels.
New research from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) found that:
- 94% of construction workers experienced stress in the past year
- 83% experienced anxiety and
- 60% experienced depression.
- Even more starkly, 28% reported suicidal thoughts within the past 12 months.
This isn’t a “young person’s” issue, it’s hitting experienced leaders hard, often silently.
Why Older Leaders Are at Higher Risk
1. The pressure of carrying the business
In the later stages of your career, you’re not just delivering you’re safeguarding the company’s future.
That constant load creates a perfect storm when combined with long hours, complex delivery timelines and skills shortages.
2. Succession: the pressure nobody talks about
Tim Walder’s (My guest on The Unlikely Executive Podcast) comment captures the mindset many leaders carry deep down:
“You’re not owning the shirt; you’re looking after it.”
That awareness of legacy, responsibility and the risk of leaving a vacuum creates emotional weight few leaders ever voice.
3. The ageing workforce isn’t helping
Over 35% of the UK construction workforce is now over 50, and only 20% is under 30, leaving senior leaders under pressure to hold everything up while the sector struggles to bring new talent through, and managing their expectations when you do find the right person.
With fewer people stepping in and many long‑serving workers retiring, leaders often absorb more stress, not less.
The Reality: Support Has Improved, But Not Enough
The CIOB reports real progress:
- 54% of workers now have access to a mental health first aider
- 77% have been encouraged to take part in wellbeing events
However, culture hasn’t caught up:
- Nearly one in five (17%) don’t feel confident approaching a struggling colleague
- 24% report experiencing daily stress
Leaders in their 50s and 60s, the generation taught to “push through”, are often the least likely to seek help.
What Senior Leaders Can Do Without Slowing Down
1. Build structured space to think (and decompress)
Simple, scheduled check‑ins reduce decision fatigue and improve focus.
The data supports it: workplaces offering regular 1:1 meetings have grown from 35% to 54% since 2020 and those teams report better wellbeing.
2. Train your managers to notice pressure early
CIOB recommends mandatory line‑manager wellbeing training because stress is much easier to prevent than fix.
3. Strengthen your succession planning
Clear succession pathways reduce leader overload and reduce the anxiety of “carrying it all”.
4. Normalise honest conversations at the top
When senior leaders speak openly (even briefly) about pressure, the culture moves quickly.
You don’t need to “share everything”, but you do need to model what healthy leadership looks like.
So legacy isn’t just about financial success it’s about ensuring you can lead well enough, long enough, to hand over something strong. And then go and live the life you want to.
There is no weakness in investing in your mental resilience.
There is only risk in ignoring it.
If you want a confidential space to step back, reflect, and rebuild your leadership energy, I’m here when you’re ready.
Image by Markus Kammermann from Pixabay
Ideas and thoughts on how to lead well through complexity and change
The Intergenerational Advantage: Why Construction Firms Who Blend Ages Will Outperform Everyone Else
If you’re worried about not having enough young people, including women coming into construction, you’re asking the wrong question. The real risk is what happens when you don’t use the people you already have properly. The Crisis No One Is Solving Properly Across the UK, the construction workforce is ageing faster than it’s being replenished. There are 20% more workers aged 55+ than under 25. And it gets worse: 35% of the workforce is now over 50, and only 20% is under 30. Yes this presents an industry risk, but closer to home we see organisational risk. Leaders worry about recruitment, apprenticeships, T levels, Skills Bootcamps all useful, but none of them address the real issue: Experience is walking out of the door every single day, and new capability isn’t being integrated fast enough. This is exactly what my conversation with Colin McEllin MCIOB of Clan Contracting highlighted. When a 21 year old commercial graduate joined Clan Contracting, Colin didn’t roll his eyes or think, “another kid who’s never been on a site.” He leaned into it and welcomes thoughts, ideas and advice from 'young Aaron'. Massive benefits for him, and Aaron, and the wider team. Why Intergenerational Leadership Is Now a Strategic Priority The construction sector is staring at a workforce cliff edge: • 140,000+ vacancies lie unfilled. • By 2036, 750,000 skilled workers will retire, stripping the industry of vital capability. • The UK will need nearly 1 million additional construction workers by 2032. Yet recruitment alone isn’t enough. You cannot hire your way out of this crisis. We must integrate generations on purpose, not by accident. What Younger Workers Bring (That Leaders Ignore at Their Peril) Younger talent offers: • Modern thinking around sustainability and digital tooling • Analytical approaches and better documentation habits • A willingness to question processes that haven't been updated since the 90s • A commercial lens shaped by newer training systems In Colin’s words, their thinking “took him right back to when he was 21” eager, energetic, ideas driven. You want that energy before they lose it. What Older Workers Bring (That You Can’t Replace) Your experienced people have: • 30+ years of instinct • Pattern recognition that no textbook teaches • Quiet influence that stabilises teams • Technical fluency on heritage, concrete, structure, sequencing, conservation, problem solving These people are your institutional memory. Once they go, they’re gone. And currently, UK engineering employers admit they only retain knowledge effectively from 57% of retiring staff. That is a crisis hiding in plain sight. Leadership Actions That Works 1. Create deliberate two way mentoring (not hierarchical mentoring). Younger staff teach digital skills, new processes, sustainability thinking. Older staff teach technical judgment, site sense, risk spotting. Both feel valued. 2. Give young people actual responsibility, not token tasks. The CITB plans 40,000+ industry placements a year. It means nothing if leaders hide young people in the corner. Let them make decisions, with support. 3. Systemise knowledge transfer. You cannot afford to rely on “ask Dave if you need help.” You need processes, templates, technical walkthroughs, shared documentation. 4. Remove the “that’s not how we do it here” reflex. 76% of construction workers say current training doesn’t adequately prepare people for the job. So your way probably isn’t the best way anymore. Your Competitive Advantage Is Sitting Right Under Your Nose When generations work in isolation, capability leaks. When generations work together, capability compounds. The firms who win over the next decade won’t be the ones who grab the talent, it will be the ones who blend talent. Listen to the full episode of the podcast here or watch on You Tube here About me I write about topics that my podcast guests bring to the podcast. They have years of experience with challenges and opportunities along the way, highs and lows and are in the thick of leading with purpose and passion, faults an'all. As a coach and trainer I work with leaders and their times to help them thrive, laugh, enjoy their work, be productive and to build teams of all ages.
We love what we do so we grow in that role, we end up as leader with people around us but we want to stay doing the thing we love doing. Balancing leadership is hard.
