Depression in workplace

Sofía Guadalupe Ramírez Cardona

Do you enjoy your work? Do you think that you can do it for all your life? Or, Do

you think that your dreams and goals are broken and you cannot stay another day

in the same situation? Well, all of us have had good and bad days. Sometimes we

feel that the sun is brighter, that we can do everything. In other side, some day we

think that our responsibilities and obligations are so big for us. This is normal, in all

activities there are periods of stress but what happen when you only have “bad

days” or “periods of stress”? It has a name and, it is a mental illness.

According to London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in Mexico,

9.5 million of people suffer depression in the workplace each year. The depression

in the workplace is the first cause of disability in world. It is a mental illness, but in

the most of cases, it does not receive treatment. The depression has many sings. It

could star with sleeping disorders, feed disorders, and bad habits. Or when we

answer “yes” always to the third question in the beginning of text.

Mexico loses 14 billion of dollars each year for absenteeism and low productivity1.

The reason is that the employees are not enough motivated. In many of these

cases, they are not conform with their workplace, or to the time that they work. The

problem is that in Mexico we work more hours than other countries more

developed like Japan or Germany. “Organización para el Desarrollo y Cooperación

Económico” (OCDE); a Spanish organization that researches about how many

hours one person works at year in 38 different countries; says that in 2015, in

Mexico a normal employ work 2.246 hours2. Many circumstances increase this
number year with year. Economy, infrastructure, security problems, media, high

cost of life are some of them. The problem is bigger than we think.

There is a circle in the employ’s routine that makes he hates his job. First, the high

costs of all things make that the employ has to workmore hours for earn enough

money. He is so tired, so he is vulnerable to advertising. He starts to buy all the

things that he believes necessary, and they are not. At the end, he works more,

and he finish more tired. The circle continues.

The solution for this problem would imply impossible actions. Our society is

capitalist. The worth of people are in the money that they produce. However, there

are some actions that we can do for avoid a depression in workplace. We can

increase and improve the communication in workplace. We should meet and

improve the work area. In addition, if job or actual situation are not according with

our needs, we can change it in a positive form.

In summary, we have to learn about the time and form that we pass working. We

need to know about disorders in the job that we can suffer for a bad stress

management. The solution for this kind of problems are in us. Change the system

is so difficult, but we can change our life, our attitudes and our actions.

Reference sources
1) Darinka Rodríguez. (2016). Empleados deprimidos causan pérdidas millonarias en México.
14/10/2016, de Alto Nivel Sitio web: http://www.altonivel.com.mx/empleados-deprimidos-
causa-perdidas-millonarias-en-mexico-57970.html
2) El país. (2016) ¿En qué país del mundo se trabaja más horas? 15/10/2016, de Periódico El país
Sitio web:
http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2016/07/07/actualidad/1467886894_771736.html