Employees dealing with depression at work — instead of being able to take time off to recover — collectively costs Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S. more than US$246 billion a year, according to a new study from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The U.S. and Brazil experience the highest workplace depression-linked productivity losses — $84.7 billion and $63.3 billion, respectively.
The data, culled from 8,000 employees, indicates highly educated employees experience a particularly negative impact if they remain at work while depressed because they are more likely to manage other workers, potentially causing additional people to be affected by the situation.
According to the data, the expense involved with employees dealing with depression at work is five to 10 times higher than the cost of employees taking time off to recuperate. Find out more from LSE.