Depression at work

In the workplace, about 20% of employees are depressed at any given time. This certificate may appear in all occupations and all employees, regardless of status or rank.

Depression affects labor productivity, judgment and communication. Depressed employees cannot concentrate and pay close attention to work, cannot judge and make quick decisions, which in turn can lead to work accidents and cause much damage. About one-third of depressed employees may abuse alcohol or sedatives.

In the era of knowledge economy today, agencies and units, especially high-tech companies must rely mainly on the mental capacity of each employee to solve customer requirements. Therefore, the issue of mental health care for employees is becoming increasingly important, as it can greatly affect the competitiveness of the company in the marketplace.

Depression causes great economic losses

A 1993 study in the United States found that the cost of depression was about $ 43.7 billion per year. In particular, direct costs accounted for only 29%, including hospitalization, outpatient treatment and medicines. The rest are indirect costs due to retrenchment, reduced labor productivity and suicide.

Individuals with depressive disorders, if not treated, the quality of their social relationships may decline. In the normal population, about 19% on average complain about poor health. But in depressed patients, this number increased by 2.5 times. During the same period, the number of days off due to loss of labor in depression patients was five times higher. Depressed patients are less active, usually all day; According to the study, about 38% of depressed patients have a long-term restriction on daily activities and 30% decrease in activity compared to about 2 weeks earlier.

In addition, the death rate in depressed people is also high and is often known to be due to suicide or accident. In particular, in patients over 55 years of age, the mortality rate in the next 15 months is 4 times higher than in the same age group without depression.

Some symptoms of depression

- Always feel sad or have an 'empty' mood.

- Loss of interest or interest in daily activities.

- Feeling tired, slow or losing strength.

- Sleep disorders.

- Eating disorder.

- Difficulty when focusing attention, when you need to recall a problem or make a decision.

- Feeling hopeless, pessimistic.

- Feeling guilty, worthless or no one can help.

- The thought of death or suicide, suicidal behavior.

- Easy to irritate.

- Cry a lot.

- Pain persists in many parts of the body without a clear cause.

If there are 5 symptoms on more than 2 weeks continuously; or these symptoms interfere with the work or home environment, the subject may be depressed and need to see a psychiatrist. If examined and treated early, the success rate is up to more than 80% and most employees after the treatment period, can work again with the same performance as before.

At work, depression often has signs:

- Reduce productivity: Do not complete on time, do slower than usual, or apologize for not completing the job, reduce the ability to make the right decision .

- Get down, feel uninterested, lose your motivation to work .

- Reducing the ability to communicate and cooperate such as self-isolation from colleagues, not attending meetings .

- Misuse of work accidents, often due to reduced ability to focus attention.

- Unemployment often, often laments always tired, or aches in many places without obvious causes (such as headache, back pain, shoulder pain, digestive disorders .) and alcohol abuse or drugs.

Avoid depression disorder

In order to help employees, managers need to have knowledge of depression, recognize early signs and discuss with their employees their problems with understanding, sympathy and always keeping secrets talk.

When employees see signs of depression, they should be transferred to the appropriate medical examination. In particular, when recognizing serious signs such as 'meaningless life', 'it is very pleasant to die' ., it is necessary to let the staff come to the specialist immediately, not to diagnose the disease itself class about 'moral' lessons. At the same time, take care to study the working environment of these employees to change in the direction of being beneficial, arranging flexible working schedules, and arranging reasonable work to help them have favorable conditions in treatment.

It should be noted that depressed employees are 'afraid' to report illnesses because they are afraid of being weak, incompetent, afraid of losing their jobs or having to move. Meanwhile, depression is treatable and treatment results are usually very positive.

In order to avoid depression, it is necessary to work with a healthy and happy spirit, ensuring good conditions such as light, fresh air, low noise and moderate temperature. Work needs to be diverse and creative to create many opportunities to apply and develop skills of workers. In addition, agencies and units also need to create conditions for workers to fulfill their aspirations to work.