Depression Costs Workplaces Billions In Absenteeism

Research continues to quantify the effects of depression on not only individuals, but also their employers. According to the article below 68 million additional days of work are missed each year by workers who have been diagnosed with depression. This is costing an estimated $23 billion in lost productivity each year for employers! That is a staggering number. One benefit to this research being done, aside from continuing the conversation that needs to be had about mental health, is it is causing employers to increase the attention they are paying to their employees’ mental health, as well as improve mental health benefits and adding employee assistance programs to help individuals navigate through challenging times in their lives. Have you seen other ways that employers are working to improve the mental health of their employees? What does your employer do?

One thing is for certain, the more awareness we can build around depression, and mental health as a whole, the more understanding and compassion we can create in others; hopefully resulting in working together to improve the lives of those impacted by mental illness.

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