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The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression

sciencenordic.com

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Re: The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression

#2

Post by 0xmohit »

To elaborate, the things that often lead to unhappy workers also include:

  - Unknown expectations from the job
  - Little or no control over decisions that affect your job
  - Missing feeling of involvement
The fair treatment bit is mentioned in the article. The reality is that people tend to be more irrational than they probably ought to be which usually has significant (negative) side-effects.

Re: The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression

#5

Post by greenspot »

This is content which the typical bullied and vulnerable employee loves to read: 'Yes of course. It's my boss who drove me into depression.'

Don't want to sound too cynical but a job is a job at the end of the day and life is more complex. Just blaming the boss for all the misery is a bit too easy.

I expect to get downvoted because more people reading here have a boss than the other way round (I guess).

Re: The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression

#6

Post by EliRivers »

greenspot wrote: post #5

This is content which the typical bullied and vulnerable employee loves to read: 'Yes of course. It's my boss who drove me into depression.' Don't want to sound too cynical but a job is a job at the end of the day and life is more complex. Just blaming the boss for all the misery is a bit too easy. I expect to get downvoted because more people reading here have a boss than the other way round (I guess).

Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's not true. Are you saying it's not true, or are you just saying it's easy?

Re: The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression

#8

Post by pionar »

greenspot wrote: post #5

This is content which the typical bullied and vulnerable employee loves to read: 'Yes of course. It's my boss who drove me into depression.' Don't want to sound too cynical but a job is a job at the end of the day and life is more complex. Just blaming the boss for all the misery is a bit too easy. I expect to get downvoted because more people reading here have a boss than the other way round (I guess).

I'm both a boss and have a boss. I've seen from people who work for other bosses that yes, the biggest effect on employee happiness comes from their boss.

There's no magic bullet; each employee is different. Sure, it's not always the boss, but a good boss does what they can to help improve that. There's two things a manager needs to do to be successful - achieve the goals you and the company have set for your team, and keep your good people. If you achieve goals but your team leaves, you haven't done shit. You've lost the game and played yourself.

Re: The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression

#9

Post by Noseshine »

VikingCoder wrote: post #7
vkat wrote: post #4

Employees quit their bosses not the company.

Maybe sometimes, not always. I quit to go to a new company, but I would have gladly kept my boss. Actually that's happened to me a couple times.

I've got a "me too" comment.

In my first job post university, after about two years, the moment I realized "I don't belong here" was when a coworker in the 80% underground open plan office stood up and asked in a loud voice to be heard by everybody "Does anybody need a few project hours for billing? I've got some hours left in my project that you can have." My boss responded "Yes! I'll take whatever hours you can spare for myself and for [Noseshine (me)]". We had to have a billable customer project for each and every hour of our time at work.

My boss was great, the "system" sucked.

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