Depression Impairs Employees’ Intellectual Functioning

Classified as a mood disorder, people mostly associate depression with sadness, loss of pleasure in daily activities, social isolation and feelings of worthlessness. Yet, aside from affecting how a person feels and behaves, depression also influences thinking.

South African research involving over 1 000 employed/previously employed workers or managers in the country now proves depression is not just a bad mood. Although respondents showed a poor awareness of cognitive symptoms, 74% of them reported experiencing one or more of the following the last time they were depressed: trouble concentrating, forgetfulness, indecisiveness. According to nearly half of the participants with depression, the cognitive symptom that most affected their ability to perform work tasks as they normally would was difficulty concentrating.

COMMON COGNITIVE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION

• Poor concentration
• Easily distracted
• Poor memory/forgetfulness
• Indecisiveness
• Slower thinking speed
• Problem solving difficulties
• Struggling to find the right words to express your thoughts
• Negative or distorted thinking patterns

“Depression affects cognitive functioning such as decision making, concentration, memory and problem solving abilities. Depression negatively impacts productivity. If an employee has depression but is at work, they are 5 times less productive than an employee who was absent due to depression,” says Psychiatrist and Clinical Psychologist, Dr Frans Korb.

Less than 20% of the employees taking part in the 2014 study associated forgetfulness and indecisiveness with depression, in contrast to sadness/low mood, which the majority identified as a symptom of depression. When it comes to recognising depression in the workplace, it seems SA workers would mostly look for withdrawal from colleagues, crying and extended sick leave as signs of its presence.

Despite rarely being a topic of discussion, the cognitive symptoms of depression tend to be quite debilitating and can affect all domains of a person’s life.

Diagnosed with depression, “Greg” had this to say about his experience: “Trying to handle all my work responsibilities is very challenging for me, and it takes me a lot longer to get things done. It’s like you can’t see the small steps, and you don’t have the energy to take big steps, so you feel stuck… trapped. At the end of the day, very little gets done. This kind of thinking makes it difficult to do any normal daily tasks, not just those related to work.”

Employees who experienced cognitive symptoms rated their work performance with depression as worse off than those with depression who did not experience cognitive symptoms. This suggests that people who find their thinking more affected by the condition feel more incompetent at work than those who struggle more with a low mood or feelings of helplessness. Workers with cognitive symptoms were also more likely to have taken time off for their depression.
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These findings highlight the issues of absenteeism in the workplace while ill, as well as continuing to work whilst ill, which then impacts severely on productivity.

During their last depressive episode, SA employees took an average of 18 days off work due to the condition. However, the recent study also showed that only half of those diagnosed with depression have taken time off work because of it. What could this say about the level of performance achieved by the other half who continued working, especially when considering the commonly experienced cognitive symptoms of poor concentration, forgetfulness and indecisiveness?

Operations Director of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), Cassey Chambers, says: “This is one of the reasons why it’s vital to examine how depression is managed in the workplace and what procedures are in place to ensure that affected employees are encouraged to and supported in seeking treatment.”

With the help of Lundbeck SA, SADAG conducted the new research to gain a better understanding of how many South Africans making up the country’s workforce experience depression, how much awareness exists in the working world about the condition, and how the illness is managed in the workplace.

FIVE WAYS COMPANIES CAN HELP

1. Educate employees on depression and especially how cognitive symptoms can affect work performance.
2. Raise awareness of any existing employee assistance programmes and emphasise that they can help with mental health problems, like depression, too.
3. Promote a culture of acceptance around depression and other psychiatric disorders – they are no different to diabetes or asthma.
4. If an employee shares their struggle with depression, refer them to a mental healthcare professional and reassure them the illness can be treated.
5. Explore creative ways to support an employee’s recovery, like flexible/adjusted working hours or working from home for a while.

Source: SADAG 2015

Wellness is becoming a strategic priority for companies across the globe. Over the past few years in there has been a significant uptake and rapid growth of wellness building projects in Asia Pacific – which looks set to continue.

Business leaders have identified the ‘war for talent’ as their number one challenge in the region. Millennial’s – set to make up 75% of the workforce by 2025 – are more focused on their own well-being, changing expectations of the ‘employee experience’. And, research shows that shows failing to take wellness into consideration has serious consequences for productivity and the bottom line.

It is therefore vital for companies to consider how they can embed wellness into the built environment, develop effective organisational policies, and positively influence employee behaviour.

Industry needs to address the pain points of these companies – by developing services to improve well-being at scale, leveraging new technologies to facilitate the journey, and providing ways to measure the impacts. For many, the focus is shifting from ‘what’ wellness is and ‘why’ it’s important, and asking ‘how’ to build effective wellness programmes, and quantify the benefits to employee and corporate performance. As the wellness industry develops more tools to answer these questions, companies will be more willing to commit time and resources to implementing them.

Given that we spend 90 per cent of our time inside, especially in urban environments like Hong Kong, and that indoor air can be more polluted than outside it is essential to ensure the air we are breathing is high quality. Poor air quality, including high carbon dioxide levels, is linked to increased risk of disease and decreased productivity. Providing clean air not only has a clear health benefit but also gives a psychological edge – it’s peace of mind. Leveraging big data and apps to consistently monitor and communicate this to employees is extremely effective.

We were born to move. Some companies are addressing this through office design by creating circulation routes to ensure people are moving throughout the day. Some have fewer printers or a centralised area for bins so people are naturally compelled to walk and socialise. You’ll also find height-adjustable desks or standing desks that team members use for a break from sitting all day. All of this helps to increase movement and step count – making for healthy internal competitions! Using a digital platform or wearable can be a great driver for healthy habits across the business and a great way to see improvements over time.

Efforts to enhance wellness can encounter multiple challenges, from budget limitations to a lack of staff or management buy-in. It’s crucial for corporate’s to create a wellness strategy that’s core to a business and its employees, and not just an add-on. This will help practitioners narrow the gap between the growing understanding of the field of wellness and effectively engaging with industry experts to execute it.

How Do You Bring Wellness Into Your Workplace?

Here are ten top tips to improve the work environment for you and your employees.

• Improve air quality – air pollution kills 7 million people every year.
• Ensure you’re drinking enough water – dehydration reduces cognitive performance and energy levels by up to 20%.
• Reduce sound distractions – exposure to unwanted sound reduces concentration by 66%.
• Get comfortable – 85% of people in Asia suffer one or more musculoskeletal conditions annually.
• Make the most of natural light – employees seated within 10 feet of a window reported an 84% decrease in eyestrain, headaches, and blurred vision symptoms.
• Focus on your mind and well-being – 25% of people report work as the number one stressor in their lives.
• Embrace nature and green materials – adding plants to the workplace can result in a 58% reduction in depression, 44% in hostility and 37% in anxiety and fatigue.
• Get moving – physical inactivity is the 4th highest risk factor in global mortality.
• Be more conscious about nourishment – 1 in 5 deaths are linked to band diets globally.
• Build a sense of community – the average human requires 6 hours of social interaction per day to maintain overall well-being.

Written by Victoria Gilbert, Associate Director, Workplace Advisory Corporate Solutions Asia, Colliers International

When your employees’ well-being is thriving, your organization directly benefits — they take fewer sick days, deliver higher performance, and have lower rates of burnout and turnover. But when your employees’ well-being suffers, so does your organization’s bottom line.

What is the Cost of Poor Well-Being?

The impact of well-being extends far beyond how people feel — it affects the number of sick days employees take, their job performance, burnout and likelihood of leaving your organization. Here are just some of the costs of poor well-being:

# 75% of medical costs accrued mostly due to preventable conditions.

# $20 million of additional lost opportunity for every 10,000 workers due to struggling or suffering employees.

# $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity cost globally due to employee burnout.

# 15% to 20% of total payroll in voluntary turnover costs, on average, due to burnout.

The good news is that your organization can do something about it and take steps to improve employee well-being.

Well-Being Affects Employee Engagement

We know that engaged employees produce far better outcomes, but Gallup recently discovered that engaged workers who are not thriving in their lives are much more vulnerable and add risk to your organization.

Comparing employees who are engaged but not thriving with those who are engaged and thriving, those who aren’t thriving report the following risks:

# 61% more likely to experience burnout often or always.

# 48% more likely to report daily stress.

# 66% more likely to experience daily worry.

# 2xmore likely to report daily sadness and anger.

This relationship is also reciprocal. As mentioned, career well-being is the foundation for the other well-being elements. And employee engagement is the single biggest driver of career well-being.

In the absence of a good job and fulfilling career, there is no net thriving. When organizations intentionally address both well-being and engagement, the effects are additive and mutually beneficial for employees and business outcomes alike.

What are the Five Common Elements People Need to Thrive in Their Lives?

In partnership with leading economists, psychologists and other scientists, Gallup studies well-being in more than 98% of the world’s population. The five common elements that people need to be thriving involve aspects of life that you can do something about.

We find that the most important element – and the foundation for the other four – is career well-being.

1. Career Well-Being: You like what you do every day.
2. Social Well-Being: You have meaningful friendships in your life.
3. Financial Well-Being: You manage your money well.
4. Physical Well-Being: You have energy to get things done.
5. Community Well-Being: You like where you live.

Source: Gallup