Are You Depressed Because of Your Job or Are You Depressed Regardless?

A Careers Reporter for Business Insider contacted me about signs that a person’s job is making him/her depressed. I’ve been wanting to write about mental illness and the workplace but just never got around to doing it and was happy that this gave me a chance to do so.

Here is what I wrote back:

The APA Dictionary of Psychology (2nd ed.) defines depression as follows:

“Depression: a negative affective state, ranging from unhappiness and discontent to an extreme feeling of sadness, pessimism, and despondency, that interferes with daily life.”

According to “Mental Illness in the Workplace” (Harder, Wagner, & Rash, 2014), depression is the most prevalent type of mental illness both inside the workplace and outside of it.

Signs of depression (and I’m referring to clinical depression) include significant sadness lasting most of the day and occurring most days of the week. What’s more, many depressed people also have trouble sleeping and/or eating. They’re tired or are chronically fatigued, can’t concentrate, feel worthless, have thoughts about suicide, or have lost experiencing joy from activities that they once enjoyed (Harder, Wagner, & Rash, 2014).

Other signs to look for, particularly in the workplace, are employees who look sad, angry, unmotivated, withdrawn, or who are tired with frequent mistakes or errors at work and/or decrease in performance or performance that’s inconsistent or unpredictable. They may also have interpersonal relationships that are stormy or diminished (Harder, Wagner, & Rash, 2014).

So how would you know if your job is making you depressed? We would want to look at workplace factors that include the following:

• High job strain – Is the job highly and psychologically demanding, with low decision flexibility?
• High stress, high threat – Does the job expose the employee to a high stress, high threat environment?
• Lack of or low support system – Is there support from colleagues and managers?

If we were to take what I just shared and put them into a list, it might look like this:

Is Your Job Making You Depressed?

1. High job strain – Is the job highly and psychologically demanding, with low decision flexibility?
2. High stress, high threat – Does the job expose the employee to a high stress, high threat environment?
3. Lack of or low support system – Is there support from colleagues and managers?
4. Being or feeling sad, angry, unmotivated, or withdrawn.
5. Feeling tired and making frequent mistakes or errors at work and/or being less productive or demonstrating performance that’s inconsistent or unpredictable.

But, and I believe this is very important, we should also phrase it this way . . .

Are You Depressed Regardless of The Job You Have? In other words, it might just be that an individual is depressed no matter what type of job he/she has. And if that’s the case (that it’s really about a person who is or might be depressed), then we would want to look for a combination of symptoms below:

1. Significant sadness lasting most of the day, and occurring most days of the week.
2. Difficulty sleeping and/or eating.
3. Feeling tired or is chronically fatigued.
4. Unable or trouble concentrating.
5. Feeling worthless.
6. Have thoughts about suicide.
7. Does not enjoy activities that you once enjoyed.
8. Rocky or reduced interpersonal relationships.
9. These problems are significantly interfering with your daily life.

Written By: Steve Nguyen, Ph.D.

References

Harder, H. G., Wagner, S., & Rash, J. (2014). Mental illness in the workplace: Psychological disability management. Burlington, VT: Gower.

VandenBos, G. R. (Ed.). (2015). APA dictionary of psychology (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.