The strong case for ‘antidepressant managers’ at work

We spend over 50% of our daily waking hours at work. It’s no surprise then, that the workplace has a massive impact on the quality of our health

Depression in part is an evolutionary submission response when we say no more and want to be left alone. When we put our heads down, lose our appetite and energy, and feel defeated.

There are 3 big reasons why we can feel depressed at work.

Lack of control

This is when we feel a sense of disempowerment by having to endure work that is monotonous, boring, soul destroying; where we die a little when we come to work each day because our work touches no part of us, that is us.

Lack of balance between efforts and rewards

This is when we work really hard and give it our best, nobody notices. When we do a poor job, nobody notices either. It’s when the signal we get from the world is that we’re irrelevant. 

Lack of status and respect

We get stressed when status is threatened and when it is low. When we are made to feel insecure and are in a constant state of status anxiety wondering if we are maintaining our positions, who’s threatening us and how far we can fall. When we feel like our status can be taken away at any moment. When there is a sense of humiliation that we feel when we’re told our work is not good enough. 

According to Gallup’s latest employee engagement report, 8 out of 10 people are not engaged at work! If we are part of this group, it means that we are sleepwalking through our workday by putting in time but no energy or passion into our work. 

Managers can act like antidepressants (without the side effects) to give us the boost we need to jump-start our mood and emotions. They can help us start enjoying our work again in the following ways:

• Making us feel like we are able to make a difference in the company we work for and in people’s lives.

• Helping us make our voice count by giving us the discretion to make decisions and change things.

• Making us feel like the work we are doing is authentic and meaningful, while challenging us in a healthy way to help us grow.

• Creating a space of psychological safety and giving us our fair share of respect with a full appreciation of good work that gets done. 

Companies have a very large responsibility in shaping society and building character for the nation. When work is enriching, life is fuller, and that spills into the things we do outside work in our neighbourhoods. But when it’s deadening, we feel shattered at the end of the day. 

The right to life is not merely to exist by chasing materialistic and extrinsic goals in an unhappy manner. If you are stuck with a company / manager that makes you depressed, realign with your intrinsic values to pursue more meaningful goals that make you happy.

All of us have certain innate needs - to feel connected, to feel valued, to feel secure, to feel we make a difference to the world, to have autonomy and to feel we’re good at something. It’s high time we collectively put in effort at the workplace to help people thrive and not just survive.