Poor team spirit at the workplace may do more than drag down morale. It can make people depressed.
Poor team spirit at the workplace may do more than drag down morale. It can make people depressed.
As depressive disorders are a major cause of work disability and account for a considerable proportion of the disease burden, more attention should be paid to psychosocial factors at work.
Past studies have estimated how social support and autonomy on the job, as well as job security, affect people's mental and physical health, but less is known about how team interaction influences health. Therefore, researchers from Finland studied 3347 employees, aged 30 to 64 years, to examine how team climate at work was associated with depression, anxiety, and alcohol use disorders and subsequent antidepressant medication in a random sample of employees. Team climate was measured with a self-assessment scale and all the participants were interviewed for depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorders.
The participants were asked on a five-point scale ranging from 'I fully agree' to 'I fully disagree' about four possible descriptions for their workplace: 'Encouraging and supportive of new ideas,' 'Prejudiced and conservative,' 'Nice and easy,' and 'Quarrelsome and disagreeing.'
The study participants were then divided into three groups based on their test results. It was found that people with a poor work climate, who felt it was highly prejudiced and quarrelsome, were 61 percent more likely to be depressed. These workers were also at high risk of anxiety. However, once the investigators accounted for how much control people had over their work and the nature of their job demands, this relationship disappeared.
This part of the study couldn't determine whether a bad work environment caused depression or whether depressed people perceived their workplace in a more negative way. A second part of the study correlated team climate ratings with antidepressant use over the next 3 years. The researchers found that subjects with the worst work environment were 53 percent more likely to purchase these drugs.
This provides evidence that a disagreeable work environment can cause depression. The researchers concluded that an unpleasant social environment at work could influence depression risk by increasing job stress, which could in turn affect factors like smoking, alcohol use, or exercise. However, more research to examine depression and work environment over time is needed to clarify the relationship.
As depressive disorders are a major cause of work disability and account for a considerable proportion of the disease burden, more attention should be paid to psychosocial factors at work.
Past studies have estimated how social support and autonomy on the job, as well as job security, affect people's mental and physical health, but less is known about how team interaction influences health. Therefore, researchers from Finland studied 3347 employees, aged 30 to 64 years, to examine how team climate at work was associated with depression, anxiety, and alcohol use disorders and subsequent antidepressant medication in a random sample of employees. Team climate was measured with a self-assessment scale and all the participants were interviewed for depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorders.
The participants were asked on a five-point scale ranging from 'I fully agree' to 'I fully disagree' about four possible descriptions for their workplace: 'Encouraging and supportive of new ideas,' 'Prejudiced and conservative,' 'Nice and easy,' and 'Quarrelsome and disagreeing.'
The study participants were then divided into three groups based on their test results. It was found that people with a poor work climate, who felt it was highly prejudiced and quarrelsome, were 61 percent more likely to be depressed. These workers were also at high risk of anxiety. However, once the investigators accounted for how much control people had over their work and the nature of their job demands, this relationship disappeared.
This part of the study couldn't determine whether a bad work environment caused depression or whether depressed people perceived their workplace in a more negative way. A second part of the study correlated team climate ratings with antidepressant use over the next 3 years. The researchers found that subjects with the worst work environment were 53 percent more likely to purchase these drugs.
This provides evidence that a disagreeable work environment can cause depression. The researchers concluded that an unpleasant social environment at work could influence depression risk by increasing job stress, which could in turn affect factors like smoking, alcohol use, or exercise. However, more research to examine depression and work environment over time is needed to clarify the relationship.
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