Understanding workinduced depression

DEPRESSION is not just about having a bad day. It can be more serious and negatively affect how a person feels, thinks and acts, decreasing their ability to function well at home and work.

Depression, left untreated, may have a significant impact on work performance. It contributes to employees being at work, but not engaged, and absenteeism. It may also adversely impact multiple areas of employee performance, including focus and decision making, time management, completing physical tasks, social interactions, and communication.

What is depression and what causes it?

Depression is a complex disease that can be driven by a combination of things, including medical, emotional and genetic factors, as well as environmental, situational and even seasonal issues. The workplace may be just one of these factors. If you already battle with depression, then it’s possible you are also dealing with depression at work. Depression describes a range of symptoms from a period of low spirits that makes coping with normal tasks harder, to life-threatening thoughts and behaviours that can make it impossible to function properly. Someone experiencing depression may find it difficult to be motivated to complete tasks including seemingly simple things like getting to work on time.

Depression, mental health issues at workplaces

While a job may not cause depression, the environment may worsen symptoms for people who already live with depression. Any workplace or job can be a potential cause or a contributing factor to depression depending on the level of stress and available support at the workplace. Depression is both common and serious, affecting different people in different ways. In addition to the commonly recognised symptom of low mood, less understood are the cognitive symptoms of depression; for instance, lack of concentration, indecisiveness or forgetfulness. Depression has an impact on business directly through increased absenteeism, accidents and employee turnover, as well as decreased productivity and performance, hence it is key to have discussions concerning it.

Signs of depression at work

Many people spend their working life at work, so it’s important to determine if we have the safest and healthiest workspace for people.

Depression in the workplace can be invisible and go undetected. However, there are noticeable signs that could initiate a conversation. Signs of depression at work are similar to general depressive symptoms and they affect your level of functioning in your job as well as at home. Examples include missing work and having indiscriminate off days or having trouble concentrating at work. When you are depressed, you can miss deadlines and fail to get work done or complete tasks as intended.

Feelings of depression only when at work

Depression tends to affect people in their prime working years and may last a lifetime if untreated. It could be that your workplace is the cause of depression. If you are largely overcome with depression while at work, but not as much elsewhere, it could be that feelings of depression are driven by your job. Serious workplace issues like harassment, discrimination, abuse and bullying can eventually lead to feelings of depression, if left unaddressed. When you are depressed you feel fatigue and lack of energy all the time.

Dealing with depression at work

If you are dealing with depression at work, try these tips. They are not intended as a cure, but could help provide ways to better cope. Staying quiet is not beneficial to the employee or the employer. It is up to human resources (HR) to lead the way in creating a culture that supports people and their healthcare needs, including depression struggles. Here are several simple, yet effective ways to transform workplace culture and create an environment supportive of mental health:

Acknowledge that depression is real

Possibly the first step to manage depression in the workplace is acknowledging it. Come to terms with how you are feeling and probably accept that you are feeling so. It is not an easy thing to think about, or to come to terms with, but accepting you are depressed is important for managing depression at work and elsewhere. Depression will likely not just go away by itself. It is important that you find a professional you can connect with and feel safe talking to.

Good mental health at work and good management go hand in hand and there is strong evidence that workplaces with high levels of mental wellbeing are more productive.

Many organisations currently fall short when it comes to supporting employee mental health and wellbeing.

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