Remember that old TV show Candid Camera? For each segment there was a set-up, there was a sucker and there was a hidden camera, recording the hilarious humiliations that ensued.

I haven’t been able to track down the footage, but in an episode that struck my ten year old self as roll-around-on-the-carpet-almost-making-yourself-sick funny, a woman applying for a job was charged with removing cakes from a conveyor belt, placing the cakes in boxes and placing the boxes in a neat pile on a table behind her.

Mid-way through this trial, the supervisor putting her through her paces was “called away” and she was left alone with the conveyor belt and the cakes, at which point fun began.

The conveyor belt began to speed up, until the cakes were coming at a raucous gallop. There was nothing the woman could do to slow the conveyor belt down and she certainly couldn’t keep up with demand.  As the cakes piled up around her, turning to buttery mush, she too went through a process of disintegration. From confident applicant, through manic conveyer-bot to demoralised quitter, the transition was pure comedy gold.

What’s funny on television, however, isn’t necessarily funny in real life.

“Job strain” is a term coined to describe a combination of high levels of demand and low levels of control amongst workers. Far from resulting in laughs, in the real world job strain is associated with depression, and with significant costs to the Australian economy.

A recent Australian study, conducted by Tony LaMontagne and Kristy Sanderson on behalf of VicHealth, attempts to estimate just how much job strain costs Australia, via its link with workforce depression.  

The study estimates that around 14.7% of the Australian workforce will experience depression in their lifetime.  More working women (18%) than men (12%) have depression at some point in their life.

At time time of the study, of those working Australians who will experience depression at some point in their life,

• 21% had had depressive symptoms over the previous year, and were in treatment;
• 17% had had depressive symptoms over the previous year but were not in treatment;
• 11% were recovered and in treatment; and
• 52% were recovered and not in treatment.

Workforce depression costs Australia $12.6 billion dollars per year. Lost productivity and the costs associated with employee turnover contribute more to the societal burden of depression than costs relating to health services and medications.

In fact, the breakdown of the costs per year looked something like this: $3.5 mil for lost productivity, $9 mil for job turnover costs, $0.02 mil for mental health services and $0.2 mil for medication.

It has been estimated that “job strain” is responsible for 13.2% of depression in men, and 17.2% of depression in women.

Roughly speaking then, in one year job strain was responsible for $730 million (5.8%) of the societal cost of depression. According to the authors of the report, this cost is potentially avoidable.

“The vast majority of employment-related costs from depression in the workforce” are borne by employers.

The costs identified by the study may just be the tip of the iceberg. Other potentially relevant societal costs not examined by the research include:

• Impact on families;
• Costs associated with depression-related workplace accidents;
• Loss of leisure time; and
• Costs associated with psych claims.

“Job strain” is just one of several psychosocial hazards that have been linked to depression. Others include:

• Effort-reward imbalance;
• Injustice at work;
• Job insecurity; and
• Bullying.

This would increase costs attributable to job strain, as would looking at the impact of job strain on mental illnesses other than depression.

The researchers conclude that, “Workplace intervention strategies that integrate mental health promotion with job stress intervention hold particular promise, as they would address depression and other mental illness regardless of cause while simultaneously reducing work-related contributions.

"Employers would be the main economic beneficiaries of such efforts, through reduced turnover and improved productivity, while employees would benefit through reduced job stress and improved mental health. Wider societal benefits could include longer duration of workforce participation and reduced early exit from the workforce onto disability pensions.”

For more information, see “Estimating the economic benefits of eliminating job strain as a risk factor for depression,” prepared by Tony LaMontagne and Kristy Sanderson.