Employers participate in mental health initiatives in a number of ways. Key amongst these is the provision of accessible places and events for employees to discuss mental health issues. Inspired by these conversations, we held a workshop for staff to encourage the discussion to develop more widely, facilitated by the first two authors of this article. The workshop was timed to coincide with the UK national "Time to Talk Day" in 2018 and it was agreed with participants at the outset that a summary of the discussions held during the event would be written up to form this article. Workplace anxieties which are particularly relevant to the specific work carried out by research staff are those relating to giving presentations and networking, including the 'cold calling' via telephone which is sometimes needed to recruit project participants. Participants across all groups reported some circumstances in which they were open about their anxieties, and others in which they were not. Their openness about anxiety was influenced by cultural factors, workplace relationships, and anticipated consequences. Analysis of the data yielded five themes relating to sources of anxiety, which were: (a) work being placed in the spotlight, (b) appearing or feeling unintelligent, (c) conflict, (d) hierarchy, and (e) uncertainty. Organisations need to be aware of the situations which provoke anxiety amongst employees in order to enable the provision of support and intervention.