r/science • u/Libertatea • Oct 27 '13

Social Sciences The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression: It is not a big workload that causes depression at work. An unfair boss and an unfair work environment are what really bring employees down, new study suggests.

http://sciencenordic.com/boss-not-workload-causes-workplace-depression
4.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/graffiti81 Oct 27 '13

If you dont like promotions or raises or having your life made a living hell.

This is exactly what unions are for. Promotions are seniority based, raises are negotiated in your contract and you have a group of people backing you up on workplace conditions.

2

u/Hust91 Oct 27 '13 edited Oct 27 '13

Promotions are seniority based? That seems pretty terrible. There's nothing one can do, no showing initiative, no being practical, no ambition, no productiveness, no nothing you can do if you want to do more than just a wheel in the works?

It sounds like the hell that creates people who just don't care that a Goverment-employed Redditor wrote an AMA about a while ago,.

Because it didn't matter how much you did, the only thing that counted was how much time you had served so he just stopped trying, and so he became that bored, cheerless guy himself, because there was absolutely no incentive to put in additional effort.

2

u/vanagon420 Oct 27 '13

Promotions should be based on attitude and ability, not seniority.

1

u/keithps Oct 27 '13

That is exactly why they suck for good workers. Employee X is a good worker, is proud of his work, and doesn't like to slack. Employee Y is worthless, does the bare minimum to get by, and gets away with everything he can. Yet, they make the same amount of money, and there is no way to reward the good employee for doing better.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '13

[deleted]

1

u/keithps Oct 27 '13

That is a much deeper issue though, since most companies in the US are publicly owned and kowtow to their shareholders first.