Feel like your workplace is especially depressing? Scientists found out why

[endicom]

Market Watch
Kari Paul
May 16, 2018

A stressful job can lead to serious mental health consequences.

Some 14% of common mental illnesses could be prevented by reducing job strain, a study published Tuesday in the journal Lancet Psychiatry found. The study, conducted by Australian mental health nonprofit the Black Dog Institute, analyzed the ways work conditions may affect mental health among 6,870 employees. It found that people experiencing job strain at age 45 were at an increased risk of developing mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety by age 50.

More... https://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-workplace-could-be-making-you-depressed-2018-05-15

[endicom]

If your workplace is depressing then that's because you're working for aholes and dirtbags. Yoga classes won't change that.

[Frank Cannon]

If your workplace is depressing then that's because you're working for aholes and dirtbags. Yoga classes won't change that.

Yup.

[240B]

Worst place I ever worked was doing fairly high-tech programming for new generation SSDs. There were about 7 of us on the project. They would design it, we had a fabrication department that would make it, and then I would program it to make it work.

We worked on an upper mezzanine and were isolated from the rest of the company...the rest of the world, really. The guys liked it cold and dark. I used to joke with them about being polar bear. I was wearing a jacket just to be able to tolerate the cold, they were were wearing shorts and a tee shirt. They were heavy-set guys, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Ok, so we are off isolated in a cold dark environment. Just to make it a little tiny bit worse than that, nobody ever talked. The only time we ever spoke to each other was in the weekly meeting or if we had a very specific technical issue with which we needed clarification. But there was no idle banter as it is called. Any daily communication was done exclusively by email. There were many days when I would come in at 7am, work until 5pm, and never said a single word to anyone the entire day. That was a normal day.

But over time, after about a year and a half, I couldn't take it any more. I needed light. I needed hubbub and conversations. Even the dreaded lunchtime 'birthday party' would at least be something.

These guys were OCD very high level engineers. Extremely talented and intelligent people. For example, you could never tell them a joke. It would just confuse them. They did not understand humor. But, they thrived in that environment. It was perfect for them. But it was driving me crazy. The dark, the cold, the silence, I just couldn't take it. I had to resign. That job, over time, became like Death Row to me. Every morning when I woke up, I hated the thought of going there. I asked if I could VPN from home but they said the work was too sensitive for that.

Don't get me wrong. It was a great/fantastic job. I hated to have to leave it. But the environment of the job was antithetical to my personality. Give me light! Give me warmth! Give me sports talk, or something!

[endicom]

Worst place I ever worked was doing fairly high-tech programming for new generation SSDs. There were about 7 of us on the project. They would design it, we had a fabrication department that would make it, and then I would program it to make it work.

We worked on an upper mezzanine and were isolated from the rest of the company...the rest of the world, really. The guys liked it cold and dark. I used to joke with them about being polar bear. I was wearing a jacket just to be able to tolerate the cold, they were were wearing shorts and a tee shirt. They were heavy-set guys, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Ok, so we are off isolated in a cold dark environment. Just to make it a little tiny bit worse than that, nobody ever talked. The only time we ever spoke to each other was in the weekly meeting or if we had a very specific technical issue with which we needed clarification. But there was no idle banter as it is called. Any daily communication was done exclusively by email. There were many days when I would come in at 7am, work until 5pm, and never said a single word to anyone the entire day. That was a normal day.

But over time, after about a year and a half, I couldn't take it any more. I needed light. I needed hubbub and conversations. Even the dreaded lunchtime 'birthday party' would at least be something.

These guys were OCD very high level engineers. Extremely talented and intelligent people. For example, you could never tell them a joke. It would just confuse them. They did not understand humor. But, they thrived in that environment. It was perfect for them. But it was driving me crazy. The dark, the cold, the silence, I just couldn't take it. I had to resign. That job, over time, became like Death Row to me. Every morning when I woke up, I hated the thought of going there. I asked if I could VPN from home but they said the work was too sensitive for that.

Don't get me wrong. It was a great/fantastic job. I hated to have to leave it. But the environment of the job was antithetical to my personality. Give me light! Give me warmth! Give me sports talk, or something!

That looks like an exceptional situation where environment determines satisfaction. I believe that satisfaction is most often determined by the quality of the people in management.

[RoosGirl]

My workplace is awesome.  There's no commute, the temperature is always exactly what I want it to be, I have a private bathroom, and I can have my dogs with me.

[guitar4jesus]

My workplace is awesome.  There's no commute, the temperature is always exactly what I want it to be, I have a private bathroom, and I can have my dogs with me.

Me too.  No complaints here.   

[endicom]

My workplace is awesome.  There's no commute, the temperature is always exactly what I want it to be, I have a private bathroom, and I can have my dogs with me.

That dogs in the bathroom thing is bothersome.

[RoosGirl]

That dogs in the bathroom thing is bothersome.

Meh, GSPs want to follow you everywhere, and having a short sit down means they take advantage to get some pets.  I've gotten used to it.

[Cyber Liberty]

Soul-sucking management will do it every time.  I don't need a study for that.

[roamer_1]

[...]isolated from the rest of the company...the rest of the world, really. The guys liked it cold and dark. I used to joke with them about being polar bear. I was wearing a jacket just to be able to tolerate the cold, they were were wearing shorts and a tee shirt. They were heavy-set guys, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Ok, so we are off isolated in a cold dark environment. Just to make it a little tiny bit worse than that, nobody ever talked. The only time we ever spoke to each other was in the weekly meeting ...]

@240B
Sounds like typical basement geeks, except for the no talking thing... Basement geeks tend to be super intelligent, but lack the social skills of the corporate IT types... Typically shunted off to isolated locations, sometimes even with its own entrance, basement geeks tend to be immensely obsessive, tend to keep weird hours, sometimes working for days at a time... Typically introverted, lacking social and style skills, Their work environment tends toward cluttered utility, but can be downright messy and sophomoric...

Monster computers, Florescent Lighting, vending machine food (typically Cheetos for me), and high energy drinks (Mountain Dew in my day)... and they thrive... Been there done that.

Yeah... I'm a hard drive guy too... 

[andy58-in-nh]

Soul-sucking management will do it every time.  I don't need a study for that.

The worst combination is metrics-driven micromanagement, combined with a lack of independent authority. You are responsible for everything and have power over nothing.