Working In Team May Lead To Anxiety

Pulse

oi-Staff

By Staff

Thursday, April 9, 2009, 4:37

Munik D' Souza has been frequenting a psychiatrist clinic for the last few weeks. His problem is 'mood swings'; also, more often than not, he complains of depression. Apparently, it has boosted his smoking habit too. Now, he smokes more that two packets of cigarettes a day and it's been a big concern for his family.

If only you thought it's one of those stupid love stories that couldn't hit the shore, well, you got to stop your assumption right there. Munik has been in love once in his life, and it's been a successful love story so far. His two, 10-year-old son, and three-year-old baby girl, kids will give you the testimony. But what's been bothering this, father of two, man is his work. He works in one of the leading corporate firms where he is constantly seen brain storming with his fellow mates. He has got a team of seven members. Everything seemed fine till a few weeks back, but now with the work pressure increased, his fellow mates have started picking fights for every small thing.

Munik had no idea that his team mates were some how responsible for his condition today. It's his doctor he had been seeing of late, who brought it to light.

A Finish study proves that difficult co-workers and awful working atmosphere leads to poor team spirit, which, in turn, increases the risk of developing depression by more than half. The study that was carried out with 3,347 people were been asked questions about their perceptions of the working environment, including team spirit, the quality of communication, and their degree of job control or demands. They were asked to rate their working environment according to four descriptions of the atmosphere in the workplace: 'encouraging and supportive of new ideas', 'prejudiced and conservative', 'nice and easy' or 'quarrelsome and disagreeable'.

The study apparently revealed that employees working with difficult co-workers and awful working atmospheres leads to poor team spirit. Employees working under such atmosphere were 60 per cent more likely to be depressed, and 50 per cent more likely to use antidepressants.

Dr Marjo Sinokki, the head of the research team from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, said that such 'psycho-social' factors as 'team climate' could be used to predict mental health. "Poor team climate at work was associated with depressive disorders and predicted future antidepressant medication," the Telegraph quoted him as saying. The researchers even collected information on prescriptions for antidepressants over the following three years from a national register. Sinokki added: "One of the rarely studied psycho-social work characteristics with regard to mental health is team climate, considered to be a construct that refers to individuals' perceptions of the quality of communication in the work environment."

"As these common mental disorders are a major cause of work disability and account for a considerable proportion of the disease burden more attention should be paid to psycho-social factors at work," he warned.

The study, which has been published in the Online Journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, admits poor team spirit and depression were linked, but it was no where associated with alcohol misuse or anxiety.

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