Worn Out

Liberman was struck with depression in the mid-1980s. “It felt like all the energy was vacuumed out of me. It’s like I didn’t have the energy to interact,” she explains. After a full day of work, she’d arrive home and, more often than not, change into her nightgown and crawl into bed. Her work life consisted of short-term disability, absence, return, then absence again with “the flu.”

During the 15 years of her ordeal, she was hospitalized 17 times, took 27 different medications—antidepressants, stabilizers—and received 24 electroconvulsive therapy treatments. Finally, on Aug. 27, 1997, as one of 12 participants in a clinical trial, she was prescribed a drug that was not yet available in Canada. August 28 was the turning point. “That was the day I actually started to live again,” she says.

Of course, not all employees will experience severe depression or other mental illness as Liberman did. But the mental health of the workforce should always be a concern for employers—particularly during this recession, when feelings of fear and stress may be heightened.

In Their Absence
As markets fluctuate, employees’ emotions may also ebb and flow as they wonder if another round of layoffs is imminent. “It’s not uncommon to see increased levels of anxiety and depression during these times,” says Peter Varela, director, disability practices, group benefits, with Manulife Financial. “There’s fear of job loss and increased workloads.”

While Diane Champagne, a principal with Mercer, says it’s too early yet to see the full effects of the recession on disability claims, she says claims generally increase. “Typically, what we see is an increase in disability claims when there are layoffs because they have an effect on people.” The recession also has an impact on return to work. “The recession can make it harder for disabled people to get back to work because there may be fewer openings for employers to accommodate return to work,” says Mike Schwartz, senior vice-president, group benefits, and executive director, The Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace.

When layoffs occur, the remaining employees are also under greater pressure. “Recent research has shown that the actual impact on the people who keep their jobs can be as significant as those who lose their jobs—because of survivor guilt type of emotions,” says Mary Ann Baynton, program director for The Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace. And those remaining employees will likely have to take on more responsibilities, the stress of which manifests itself in two ways.

First, some employees resort to casual absenteeism, says Karen Seward, senior vice-president, business development and marketing, with Shepell.fgi—perhaps because they’re anxious about a looming work project or simply want to use up their sick days. Others try to look busy. “[Employees] think, Well, if I don’t look busy, then I’m going to be the first to go,” says Baynton. “There isn’t the work because the recession has taken away a lot of it.”

Second, a few of those remaining employees who are afflicted with a mental illness—unbeknownst to the employer or, sometimes, to the employees themselves—may be simply “sticking it out in the workplace,” says Schwartz, out of fear that they could be the next to go. “It’s counterintuitive,” says Doug Smeall, assistant vice-president, business development, health management services, group benefits, with Sun Life Financial. “We would have expected to see increased absenteeism, but there’s a hunkering-down mentality: employees are thinking, The job market is not great, so I’d better be visible.”

Suffering in Silence
For those with a genetic connection to mental illness, the current economic conditions could be the tipping point. Champagne says that stress can be a contributing factor to mental illness for which a person is already predisposed.

Mental illness affects 20% of the population, and the statistics tell all. Employees who are struggling with mental health issues have higher rates of absenteeism, use more health services and are less productive at work. In fact, one 2003 U.S. study indicated that 81% of lost productivity time costs from depression resulted from employees’ reduced performance while at work. And a 2002 report from the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health found that up to 12% of an organization’s payroll is lost to disability. The report also noted that only 20% of those who need treatment for mental disorders actually get it—and 70% of those are in the workforce.