What You Should Do If Your Employee Seems Depressed

Depression is a serious disease, the causes for this disease can be many, yet when this disease hits our work force, and our companies suffer. What has your company done recently to cope with depressed persons working in it? At one time, I managed a store for a Forbes fortune 100 company; I had between 6-8 full time employees.

Now there is something to be said for a smaller work force to keep track of, however I soon noticed that if one of my people exhibited depressive symptoms or even a major depression, my numbers fell as well. The simplest signs were abrupt attitude changes, a normally happy person coming into work obviously upset, or the occasional good employee complaining quite suddenly about normally mundane things, increasing irritability, or loss if enthusiasm, sudden severe mood swings.

Therefore, I quickly began researching depression treatment and what my company allowed for this. I found that basic changes in lighting, music, exercise, and even food could affect the chemical balances that create mental depression in us. While the company I worked for had policies regarding what music was to be played, and how the lighting was to be set, I could actually enable the depressed individuals to become better (at least at work) by enforcing slightly longer breaks. I also began incorporating more rewards for performance. Now many people will not agree that by just increasing a break by 5 minutes can have that large of an effect on an individual, I disagree completely. By allowing my employees to either take a longer lunch, or divide their breaks into 3 equal parts, I was allowing them some autonomy in their normally mundane work experience. This alone brightened up the day for many, I also began organizing semi weekly events in which we exercised and enjoyed a weekend together without work stress being brought up at all. Some weekends we would have family paintball tournaments, and others baseball, basketball etc. By doing this, I was encouraging some exercise without approaching the boundary of personal space every person must have. The first few of these included buffets of healthy good food that I purchased for just this occasion, and afterwards many times I noticed employees bringing better lunches etc.

However, the most important thing I did for my people was listening. I would sit down and individually listen to each person's problem. Obviously while I was not a mental health specialist the simple fact, that someone cared enough to listen and not judge them no matter what the issue enabled the depressed individuals to regain their sense of self worth and move ahead with the daily grind. Because the company I was with depended so heavily on our ability to perform rigorously on a daily basis the ability to keep a happy, productive workforce was and is the most important.

Occasionally it would be severe enough that you may want to recommend alternative counseling, again make sure to do this in a non-threatening manner. It is bad enough that the person affected is already suffering from mood swings and insecurity based on what could very well be a variety of problems some not even linked to your workplace. Make sure as a manager that you are aware of the allowances with every employee's insurance choice. In most cases, current workplace insurance includes some counseling and can be very effective with helping your employees gain a better understanding of why they feel the way they do.

Above all remember depression is a very common ailment, and unfortunately still can be looked down on by the general population as a "weakness." Remember the simple steps to assessing and assisting each employee to get the maximum efficiency in work from each. Watch your employees, sit down for semi weekly individual chats with each employee, ask them how they feel, what they may be missing, and be prepared to ask your higher ups for permission to change simple things that could positively affect everyone involved.