Colleagues

Shashi Kant Jha, psychiatrist

A depressed colleague will rarely want to talk about his or her mental state, and many people are also afraid of being sacked if a colleague or manager discovers their illness.

Depression often causes people to take long-term sick leave from work. Many people suffer from recurring depression and may be away from work for several spells. Depression therefore requires great understanding and patience from colleagues and management.

Work input is affected

Depression can among other things affect your colleague's thoughts and memory. Their work input can therefore also be affected in different ways, e.g.. in the form of

• a lack of energy - he or she may be unable to do their work and could perhaps start to become careless
• tiredness - they may arrive late for work
• a lack of concentration - they may make errors in their work
• irritability - they may flare up at colleagues more quickly
• low work rate - they may move and act more slowly
• altered behaviour towards colleagues - they may for example withdraw from social gatherings.

If you have a colleague who has been behaving differently for some time or who has changed in some of the ways mentioned above, he or she may have incipient depression.

There are several things you can do in this situation. You can

• cautiously ask whether your colleague is unhappy
• suggest that your colleague visits the doctor to find out what is wrong
• offer your help and, for example, go with them to the doctor or organise practical things
• offer to take over some of your colleague's workload

The only thing you should not do is start avoiding your colleague. That is the last thing he or she needs in this situation.