Bonding with Coworkers and Productivity in the Workplace

PrintEmail

Last week Gallup published results from a study on how a lack of an emotional bond between coworkers can lead to lower productivity and mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression. Gallup interviewed millions of workers in hundreds of companies around the world and found that no social reward can quickly translate into a lack of interest in doing work. Employers may want to take notice--worker health issues can have direct economic consequences.
 
For instance, in 2000 the economic burden for depression in the United States was about $83.1 billion--$26.1 billion in treatment costs and $51.5 billion for workplace absenteeism and general loss of productivity. On average, depressed workers report 5.6 fewer hours of productivity a week. One way to increase morale in the workplace? Promote company efforts to operate sustainably, according to another new report from the Pew Research Center that I wrote about here. Apparently worker morale goes up when employers show a dedication to energy efficiency and sustainability.
 
The Gallup study comes just after the passage of the monumental health care reform bill, which includes an expansion of a law that addresses mental health coverage. The law prohibits insurance companies from making mental health treatment more costly or difficult to access than other medical treatments.
 
With 7 percent of American adults affected by depression and 18 percent affected by anxiety disorders, it may behoove us to 1) continue to allow access to mental health coverage and chip away at the taboo that surrounds it, and 2) build workplaces around meaningful interaction or, as Gallup called it “emotional and psychological bonds between workers” to reduce the need for such coverage in the first place.
 
Of course, first the United States needs to put people back into the workplace. Gallup recently reported that, although the U.S. economy gained 162,000 jobs last month, the national rate for underemployment increased slightly to 20.3 percent.
 
Read more from YPNation on the Recovery Act and job creation. 
 
(Photo credit: Larsinio/Wikimedia Commons)