Workplace stress

The working environment has become tougher: more multitasking, more fixed-term contracts, and increased pressures from competition. At the same time, the number of people with mental disorders has doubled in Germany over the last 20 years. This is what the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists has gleaned from reports of the statutory health insurance companies.

The German saying "Arbeit macht krank" or “work makes you ill” over-simplifies the research done by psychotherapists, according to chamber chairman Rainer Richter. He says that doctors and those affected deal with the issue of mental illness more openly these days.

"Stigmatization has declined somewhat, although it still remains a factor," Richter said. "The result is that people are more willing to accept it if a psychotherapist, a doctor, tells them that they are suffering from depression. But it is also because the doctors' skills in diagnosing mental disorders have improved.”

“But we also have clear indications that the number of mental diseases have indeed increased, precisely because of the worsening situation on the labor market, in the workplace, especially in the service sector."

Sickness is expensive

Today, 11 percent of annual days of absence from the workplace are due to mental illnesses. Richter points out that the periods of sick leave involved are usually much longer than those taken for physical ailments- an average of three weeks - which is quite expensive as well.

"For depression alone, we spend 4.3 billion euros ($5.78 billion) each year on direct treatment costs,” Richter explained. "That doesn't include the cost of unfitness for work – sick pay and the like – but merely the treatment costs. And that means about 4,000 euros per year for every patient suffering from depression."

"These are substantial sums, not to mention the economic damage caused through reduced working capacity and the like," he added.

Richter is not really surprised by the fact that more and more employees are staying away from work because of psychological disorders. Work is a burden, especially if the individual is under severe pressure and has little influence on how they go about their tasks, or - as temporary workers often experience - a great deal of professional commitment fails to attract words of praise or a pay hike.

Work affects self-esteem

"Work not only secures our material existence but also our mental and spiritual existence, that is, we find meaning in the work if we have a job that fulfils us. It contributes to our self-esteem," Richter said.

"It is distressing if we don't have a sense of achievement or if we lose our job. And we only need to think back to the old concepts of alienation."

The notion of "alienation" brings to mind a concept of Karl Marx: with industrialization, man loses his natural relationship with what he produces. This connection needs to be strengthened in the service sector, says Richter. He calls for more creativity and participation in the workplace.

"We introduced many changes to work processes in the industrial sector after determining that the old ones caused diseases that have a serious negative impact on people," Richter said. "So why shouldn't we manage it in the service sector and other sectors as well, particularly as the rise in mental illnesses there is so expensive to deal with?”

“I am very optimistic that it will work," he added.

Such a transformation of the working world will probably take a while. In the meantime though, Richter is urging businesses to arrange for employees to attend special courses to make them more mentally resilient.

Author: Heiner Kiesel (rb)
Editor: Sam Edmonds