Depression Isn’t Crying in the Corner

Summary: Study reveals how depression can impact workers, especially when it comes to disclosing information about their disorder.

Source: West Virginia University

Employees who experience depression are tasked with the decision to disclose their mental health to others at work.

For these employees, one West Virginia University researcher found that they utilize eight strategies on how to disclose (or conceal) this often-stigmatized social identity.

Kayla Follmer, assistant professor of management in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, recognized that mental illness can be a concealable identity, much like religious affiliation, sexual orientation or having conditions such as HIV or diabetes: you can’t always see it from the outside.

This led her to wonder how people manage this identity at work. 

“Are people with depression disclosing their disorder at work?” Follmer asked. “Are they telling other people and how are they going about it?”

After a series of interviews with 30 employees ranging from a candy display builder to a pharmacy technician to an active-duty member of the Navy, Follmer discovered that individuals employed eight strategies when it comes to managing depression identity in the workplace.

  • Concealing: Employees simply hid their depression from others at work. This entailed actively hiding both information and behaviors.
  • Fabricating: This is a non-disclosure method where a person shares false information to hide their depression. For example, one participant lied to their supervisor about psychiatric appointments. Instead, they told the boss they had to see a doctor for migraine issues.
  • Masking: Another non-disclosure method, masking includes putting on a façade or fake persona, like smiling when you don’t feel like it.
  • Signaling: Considered a semi-disclosure method, signaling means alluding to one’s depression, in either passive or active ways. With this strategy, individuals did not openly disclose but did provide hints about their stigmatized identity. Respondents felt their natural dispositions were enough for colleagues to catch on that they might be depressed. Others said they openly vocalized life’s challenges, such as divorce or loss, to their colleagues.
  • Limited Disclosure: With this limited disclosure strategy, participants told others at work about some aspects of their depression but did not disclose full information. For instance, one might disclose struggles with mental illness but not mention taking prescription medication or hospitalizations.
  • Selective Disclosure: This strategy occurs when individuals tell only certain individuals at work – not everyone – about their depression.
  • Transparency: This full-disclosure method happens when a person is generally open about their depression and tell everyone about it.
  • Advocacy: Those who are advocates take it a step further. Not only did they fully disclose their mental health but they advocated for awareness for others.

Follmer’s findings are published in Group & Organization Management.

“What’s novel about this study is that we were able to show support for a continuum of disclosure,” Follmer said. “We have this continuum, which had been theorized, but now it’s supported empirically. In other words, people do not simply disclose or conceal, but rather there are gradations of these decisions.”

Follmer said those who fall on the non-disclosure end of the continuum are fearful of the stigmatization of mental illness and facing unjust consequences such as being fired or mistreated at work.

For people who semi-disclose information, Follmer believes those employees are dipping their toe in the water to test how others may react to their disclosure.

On the far end of the continuum is full disclosure, in which participants are open about their depression diagnosis.

“It’s not necessarily telling every single person you meet, rather it’s a general openness that if it comes up, you’ll talk about it,” Follmer explained. “You’re willing to share your experiences and you don’t feel afraid or ashamed.”

In this study, participants were least likely to use full disclosure strategies, suggesting that many employees are still afraid to fully embrace their mental illness at work. 

Follmer also observed the outcomes of her participants’ decisions. Individuals may have switched strategies over time based on the reactions of their peers and supervisors.

“If they changed jobs, maybe before they were very open but not now because of a bad experience,” she said. “Perhaps they weren’t open before but now they have a supportive climate. So we see this change across jobs and also within jobs. For instance, there were some individuals who disclosed to their boss and their boss was not receptive or supportive at all. Now they don’t talk about it anymore.” 

This shows a depressed looking man looking out of a rainy window
Follmer said those who fall on the non-disclosure end of the continuum are fearful of the stigmatization of mental illness and facing unjust consequences such as being fired or mistreated at work. Image is in the public domain

Overall, these results show that employees choose to manage their depression in unique ways, and there isn’t one best approach. According to Follmer, organizations can benefit by providing an inclusive climate in which employees may choose to manage their identity however they see best.

For Follmer, her research matters in the business world.

“In organizational research, we don’t focus on people with disabilities,” she said. “We have stereotypes of the ideal worker. They’re always going to be very productive and very healthy and we’re going to work them to the bone. But there’s a gap here. On one hand, there’s the notion of epidemic levels of mental illness and suicide. None of that is reflected in organizational research. I feel it’s an injustice that millions of people each year are experiencing mental illness and we aren’t doing a good job bringing their experiences to light.

“We’re managing human beings and sometimes we would do better to just simply check in and say, ‘How are you doing? What can I do to support you? If you need anything I’m here,’ rather than saying your performance is not good. We should take a more humanistic approach first to manage the individual rather than always just focusing on their work output.”

About this depression research news

Source: West Virginia University
Contact: Jake Stump – West Virginia University
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.
Navigating Depression at Work: Identity Management Strategies Along the Disclosure Continuum” by Kayla Follmer et al. Group and Organization Management


Abstract

Navigating Depression at Work: Identity Management Strategies Along the Disclosure Continuum

For employees with stigmatized concealable identities, the decision to disclose or not disclose represents a critical workplace experience. Moreover, employees enact their disclosure decisions by engaging in identity management (IM) strategies.

Although multiple conceptual frameworks exist related to disclosure decisions and IM strategies, none of these frameworks consider the relationship between these two phenomena. In addition, empirical work surrounding disclosure decisions often positions disclosure as a dichotomous decision, rather than considering disclosure as occurring along a continuum.

In this study, we use in-depth interviews to investigate the nuances of concealable IM using a sample of stigmatized employees, namely, those with depression.

Through inductive thematic analysis, a continuum of disclosure decisions emerged (non-disclosure, partial disclosure, and full disclosure) as well as eight distinct IM strategies that participants used to enact their disclosure decisions. Our results extend the knowledge of concealable IM in multiple ways.

First, we map specific IM strategies onto the disclosure continuum to provide a more robust understanding of the IM process for employees with depression. Second, we identify specific IM strategies related to partial disclosure and full disclosure, thereby extending existing conceptual frameworks. Additionally, we expand the definitions of the concealing and signaling IM strategies.

Lastly, our study exposes the lived experiences of a group of employees that have traditionally been underrepresented in applied organizational research, those with depression.

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  1. Depression is watching most TV and especially the TV news expecting to hear a smidgen of truth. You are depressed because you never hear it.

    For employment related depression, it could be you are in a job you don’t really care about or don’t find very satisfying but currently need to support yourself or family. You realize that you could get a better job or that you could be doing something that could be more relevant, but you are not sure how to go about making positive changes.

    After all, your schooling was geared more toward CRT, gender, equality and other useless nonsense that has nothing to do with your financial survival and thriving or your personal emotional health.

  2. We hide our depression because anybody, who has never had depression, seems to think, all we need is jollying up.
    Which is as stupid as telling someone with with cancer to just let id go, or someone with a broken back to jest get up and walk.
    We can tell ourselves this, but all it does is hide out true moods. We actually have no control over the physiology of depression. It is NOT because we are miserable either.|
    My Mother used to tell me to cheer up, smile, etc etc. I told her she had NO IDEA how depressing depression is. She also called me mad — as mad as my father who also had clinical depression,.

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