Summary The difficulty of remaining at work because of a mental health problem is a growing social preoccupation. The authors wanted to develop a systematic approach for identifying the determinants of the inability of a worker with psychological difficulties to maintain an active professional life. To do this, they developed and performed an initial validation of two tools intended for workplaces: an investigation tool for identifying the determinants, prevalence and distribution of psychological distress and presenteeism, and an ergonomic tool for describing and evaluating the workload and its determinants in the work activity. This work is innovative in proposing pretested tools that question the employees’ prescribed and real work in terms of the difficulties felt, while taking into account the workload that they feel. It documents the factors related to the work environment as well as those related to the individual’s environment. The Journal de Bord (Log) developed by the researchers, the questionnaire Estime de soi en tant que travailleur (self esteem as a worker) and the French version of the Work Role Limitation Questionnaire are included in the report.