Abstract
BackgroundHigh numbers of employees are coping with affective disorders. At the same time, ambitiousness, achievement striving and a strong sense of personal control and responsibility are personality characteristics that are nowadays regarded as key to good work functioning, whereas social work circumstances tend to be neglected. However, it is largely unkown how personality characteristics and work circumstances affect work functioning when facing an affective disorder. Given the high burden of affective disorders on occupational health, we investigate these issues in the context of affective disorders and absenteeism from work. The principal aim of this paper is to examine whether particular personality characteristics that reflect self-governance (conscientiousness and mastery) and work circumstances (demands, control, support) influence the impact of affective disorders on long-term absenteeism (>10 working days).MethodsBaseline and 1-year follow-up data from 1249 participants in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) in 2004–2006 was employed. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed, including interaction effects between depressive, anxiety, and comorbid disorders and personality and work circumstances.ResultsIn general, mastery and conscientiousness increased nor diminished odds of subsequent long-term absenteeism, whereas higher job support significantly decreased these odds. Interaction effects showed that the impact of affective disorders on absenteeism was stronger for highly conscientious employees and for employees who experienced high job demands.ConclusionsAffective disorders may particularly severely affect work functioning of employees who are highly conscientious or face high psychological job demands. Adjusting working conditions to their individual needs may prevent excessive work absence.
Highlights
High numbers of employees are coping with affective disorders
Given the scarcity and inconclusiveness of prospective research in this area, this paper aims to investigate whether personality characteristics that reflect selfgovernance, and work circumstances buffer or rather increase the impact of affective disorders on work functioning
Since we are interested in characteristics that reflect ‘self-governance’, this study focuses on two particular personality characteristics of which we will argue that they reflect this concept, i.e., conscientiousness [13] and mastery [14]
Summary
High numbers of employees are coping with affective disorders. At the same time, ambitiousness, achievement striving and a strong sense of personal control and responsibility are personality characteristics that are nowadays regarded as key to good work functioning, whereas social work circumstances tend to be neglected. Governments and employers appear to regard such characteristics as key to good work functioning and successful employability [6,7,8] This call for self-governance for instance entails the requirement that employees take individual responsibility for their professional career by seeking new challenges, formulating and striving towards ambitious goals, and constantly ‘work on themselves’ in order to retain their employability and profitability [6, 9]. It is questionable, whether employees who embody such characteristics have better work outcomes, and it is largely unknown whether they respond differently to affective disorders from those whose personalities less strongly reflect self-governance. An emphasis on self-governance in the workplace may downplay the importance of work circumstances [7, 9], such as psychological demands, social support and control over work, whose effects on work functioning have been shown in numerous studies [10,11,12]
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