Depression in the Workplace

Image by: Sara Tyson

B.C. companies are slowly making a move to properly recognize workplace depression.

Brenda fell into the deep, dark rabbit hole of depression at age 32, shortly after a stressed-out co-worker committed suicide. Like everyone in the headquarters of their Vancouver-based resource company, Brenda had been racking up extensive unpaid overtime for months to keep pace with a growing workload. Management’s unrealistic expectations had created a working environment where everyone was struggling just to stay afloat.

She recalls how her former co-worker seemed unusually intense the day he stopped at her desk to say goodbye. “I asked if he had found another job. He said, ‘No, I just have to get out of here.’ I was concerned enough to tell someone in HR about what I thought was a very strange conversation. Two days later, they sat us down as a group and told us he had killed himself. They even brought in a counsellor to help us ‘cope,’ which seemed really bizarre, given that before then no one in management had cared what the added stress was doing to us.”

The suicide was a tipping point for Brenda. Already struggling with a special project on top of her regular job, Brenda – a self-described detail-oriented perfectionist – began withdrawing from friends and family, sleeping less and crying constantly, unable to make even the smallest decision. When the very thought of getting up for work made her physically ill, she saw her GP, who diagnosed her depression, cleared her to take disability leave and made sure she got treatment. But her employer was far from supportive. Returning to work after her first depressive episode, she found herself at odds with a female supervisor, someone she describes as a judgmental “eye-roller” with little compassion. This relationship triggered a serious relapse, leading to thoughts of suicide, a short hospitalization and another stint on disability leave.

Sidebar: Are you sad or depressed?
Info: Workplace depression in Canada

Today – thanks to a doctor-supervised regimen, including counselling, a healthy lifestyle emphasizing exercise and nutrition, and a stabilizing cocktail of four antidepressant medications – Brenda is once again, at age 50, a fully functioning member of the workforce. Her new employer, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, is fully committed to reducing the stigma around mental illness, treating it as any other serious disease and training its managers to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression while directing those at risk to help through the company’s employee assistance program. “There have been times when I really couldn’t imagine saying that I love my job and the people I work with,” says Brenda, “but now I do.”

• Tags
  • Canadian government, 
  • CMHC, 
  • Vicki O'Brien, 
  • City and Government, 
  • Human Resource Management, 
  • Health and Pharmaceuticals