Purpose: A main goal during the return to work (RTW) process after a long-term sickness absence due to common mental disorders (CMDs), is to restore and maintain employees' work ability to enable their sustained work participation. This study jointly examined employees’ work ability ratings and experiences during their RTW process with CMDs.

Methods: In a mixed methods follow-up study of N = 286 participants, work ability was quantitatively assessed with the Work Ability Score (WAS, range 0–10) at baseline (week before clinical discharge) and after 6, 12, 18, and 30 months. In a sub-sample, the qualitative work ability experiences of N = 32 participants were analysed at 6 and 12 months, and were jointly evaluated with the quantitative data.

Results: The mean WAS increased during the first 18 months of follow-up. Three groups of qualitative work ability experiences emerged: Employees with (1) poor work ability (WAS 0–3), who did not RTW yet and described great difficulties in coping with everyday life, (2) moderate work ability (WAS 4–6), who mainly did RTW, but still showed a certain level of fragility, and (3) good to very good work ability (WAS 7–10), who mainly returned to work and reported many individual and work accommodations to maintain their work ability.

Conclusion: The present study provides new insights into different aspects of work ability experiences, especially during the later RTW phases, where restoring and maintaining work ability is essential for a sustained work participation. This knowledge may help RTW stakeholders to better tailor support during the RTW process.

The complete article is published in the "Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation" (2025).