Companies who don’t address employees’ mental health might be sabotaging themselves, a new study shows.
Adults with social anxiety and depression tend to work fewer hours, according to the recent study published in Psychiatric Research & Clinical Practice.
Researchers analyzed the data of 250 adults between ages 18 and 60 who were diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. During a 52-week period, they tracked how many hours each participant worked and recorded their anxiety and depression symptoms to see if their mental state could predict hours worked.
CEOs and employees both are negatively effected when poor mental health persists, says Natalie Datillo, a clinical psychologist and instructor at Harvard Medical School. Depression and anxiety are treated differently, but they both cause people to isolate, she says.
“What comes with avoidance is isolation and withdrawal and limiting our opportunity to have positively reinforcing experiences,” she says.
Working can provide some safeguards that are often overlooked.
“Work has a protective effect on our mental health,” she says. “Overall working is good for us from a mental health standpoint. It provides structure for our life, it gives us something to do, it allows us an opportunity to interact with other people, not to mention it allows us to have an income.”
‘The less we do, the less likely we are to experience things that make us feel better’
A person who struggles with some anxious tendencies might find it challenging to go to work, give presentations, and interact with co-workers, but ultimately isn’t plagued by their decision to do so.
“For the most part we can pull it together and do it and feel better afterwards,” Datillo says. “With folks who struggle with an anxiety disorder they don’t feel better. They spend the rest of the day overthinking or ruminating or obsessing on how they did, what are other people thinking.”
If they are depressed, harsh self-criticism can kick-in, as well. This can cause them to leave early, call in sick, and self-isolate even more.
Ironically, the more they avoid work the more severe their anxiety and depression symptoms can become, Datillo says.
“The less we do and the more we avoid, the less likely we are to experience things that make us feel better,” she says.
By caring about their employees’ mental health, companies might actually be helping their bottom line.
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