Managers and Mental Health: Mental Illness and the Workplace

Abstract

Mental illness is prevalent in modern society and in our organizations. Though our knowledge of mental disorders has greatly increased over the past few decades, managers' understanding and acceptance of the pervasiveness, treatment, and impact on organizational life has lagged behind. Partly because modern psychiatry and clinical psychology are relatively new fields of practice (just a century ago the seriously mentally ill were being locked away in insane asylums), mental illness still carries a stigma. We rarely disclose our depressed moods, our feelings of anxiety, or other mental symptoms to our work colleagues; yet our organizational chit chat is full of discussions of allergies, broken bones, influenza, even cancer—“legitimate” subjects because they are “medical.” At the same time, the self-help sections of bookstores are full of titles on a range of mental illness. For example, Listening to Prozac, a discussion of a new class of drugs for depression, and The Road Less Traveled, practical advice from psychiatrist Scott Peck, are national best-sellers. In this article, I hope to introduce the reader to the symptoms and treatment of the most common mental disorders found in the workplace and suggest to managers how they may facilitate mental health.