A friendly looking, tie-wearing, big brown bear greets you from the depths of a scenic forest on the pages of a new on-line portal aimed at raising awareness about depression in the workplace. The front page of RightDirectionforme.com reads:
“When you’re depressed at work, it can feel like you’re lost in the woods alone. But there’s help, and you can find your way out.”
Depression is a bear of a burden on its own, let alone in the workplace where the stigma attached to it is arguably just as bad as the consequences of remaining silent for the employee and the employer. That’s the message from the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health (an arm of the American Psychiatric Foundation) which joined with Employers Health launching Right Direction to educate employers and employees about depression, reduce stigma and increase the chances of people asking for help.
“In my experience, depression has been on the radar, but not a topic that employers typically have wanted to address head-on,” says Marcas Miles of Employers Health who overseas programs and community outreach for the non-profit coalition of health care providers. He says while employers are aware of the problem, they don’t necessarily have a direction to start the conversation – thus the Right Direction initiative was born.
Data suggest a growing need to address depression at work. Mental illness short-term disability claims are growing by 10% annually and mental disorders were at the heart of more than 9% of long-term disability claims in 2012. As I mentioned in a recent Forbes.com post, Tackling Depression at Work as a Productivity Strategy, depression is a leading cause of lost productivity in the United States with an annual cost of $44 billion to employers.
Add work stress into the mix and things get even more complicated says Clare Miller, director of the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health. While stress is something that everyone experiences she says, not being able to manage stress in a healthy way is a concern. “Someone with clinical depression may be especially vulnerable to highly stressful situations, especially if their depression is not adequately managed,” says Miller.
“There has been a significant rise in disability claims in the last two years, some of them related to psychiatric problems,” says Robert Leahy Ph.D. the director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy. “I have seen a dramatic increase in generalized anxiety, marked by excessive worry, focused on the possibility of losing their job.
The author of Beat the Blues Before They Beat You: How to Overcome Depression, says added stressors at work might be contributing to depression and worry. “There are increasing demands for productivity to increase profits, while support staff has shrunk,” says Dr Leahy. “Moreover, people often report feeling stuck in a no-win, glass-ceiling job, but they fear being out in the market place in such difficult times. As a result they feel trapped and helpless.”
Other work stress culprits include employees feeling that they are suffering with burnout, being treated unfairly or not compensated properly, lack control of outcomes, and feel unappreciated. “Increased complaining may help some think that they are ventilating their entitled opinions, but this may lead to getting fired,” says Dr. Leahy. Thus, keeping their job the prime stressor that can exacerbate underlying depression.
The Right Direction website offers a questionnaire to explore whether one is depressed. It’s not just about sadness, hopelessness, irritability, self-criticism and feelings of indifference and withdrawal. Upon perusal, companies will see that when depressed their employees are likely to have difficulty concentrating, might be more forgetful, less productive and less present even when sitting at their desks. They are twice as likely to develop heart disease, and twice as likely to have a stroke.
Retaining valued employees, less turnover and a healthier more productive workforce. Perhaps that’s the argument that is best aligned with that bottom-line for the C-suite to identify early recognition of symptoms, have the difficult conversations and tackle depression head on.
Is employee depression on the radar of big business? Should it be?
Please share your thoughts. Connect with me on Twitter: @JudyMartin8 and please visit me at WorkLifeNation.com where I track work stress management initiatives, workplace well-being trends and write about transforming stress in an “always-on” world.
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