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// The study sounds like it is trying to blame the problem on the suffers (the "contagion" of their depression), but the obvious explanation of this is that by

// The study sounds like it is trying to blame the problem on the suffers (the "contagion" of their depression), but the obvious explanation of this is that by hiring from organizations with high stress, you're likely to be hiring perpetrators Really strong disagree. In every company I've worked at (4 so far) the level of mental illness I can observe among coworkers is directly related to who was hired, not what we do with them. As an obvious example, I worked at a hedge fund that strongly filtered for resilience, ability to overcome obstacles, and desire to grow through tough feedback. Almost everyone I worked with there was rational, calm, and sane as a consequence. At other places where mental attributes weren't considered (so let's say a pure tech interview that doesn't amp up the scenario) you could watch the "crazy" come out of the woodwork there moment something triggered it. And I think specifically you could see them feeding on each other's anxiety in the Slack hangouts, blind, etc. At some point, seeing 400 people have a meltdown about the layoffs that happened, on daily basis for months, takes a toll on you that's worse than the impact of the layoff itself. So yes I see the chorus of crazies impact everyone negatively.

ChuckMcM 4y ago
And then there are psychopathic workplaces where management hires anxious and vulnerable employees in order to maintain their own sense of dominance over those who work for them. I talked with a managerial candidate once who considered this a "good strategy" because "you can make them work 80 hrs a week and they won't complain". At the end of that interview I wasn't sure if I should call social services or not. It was pretty deeply unsettling for me.
- ikekkdcjkfke 4y ago
  Well a slave needs a slave driver, there's a place for everything
- xyzelement 4y ago
  That sounds horrible. And very likely not totally uncommon. But I think that's orthogonal to whether hiring crazy people makes other people in your company crazier.
  - ChuckMcM 4y ago
    True, was responding to the comment more than the article. That "morale" is contagious does not seem to me to be a particularly surprising finding. Nor that a person's mental health can affect their working relationship with someone and that person's mental health. Anyone who has lead groups of people gets an intuitive sense of that pretty quickly. And I think the author is trying to put that intuition on a more reasoned footing, which I think is a good effort, but mental health is rather hard to measure quantitatively so it resists this form of analysis pretty strongly.
- HarryHirsch 4y ago
  One can make a good case that in the long run everyone is better off with workers rights. The bullying that is so prevalent in the US workplace is deeply unhealthy and at the end of the day, damaging to productivity.
deleted 4y ago
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_cenw 4y ago
I don't want to assume too much, but may I ask how well set up your safety net is in case you get fired? I'd assume that hedge fund managers are pretty well set up, and they don't have to be too concerned about losing their jobs. Is it really too surprising people with a less cozy backup fund are anxious when the person next to them lost their livelihood in an instant, especially in this macroeconomic environment where getting hired again is far from certain? I'm just saying, if losing your job hits the "safety" level of your pyramid of needs, is the looming threat really so unreasonable to be anxious about?
- xyzelement 4y ago
  Good clarification. In all cases the people I worked with were highly paid tech workers facing a great job market. The objective reality was "you'll be fine and you'll find a job quickly" The amount of anxiety was not proportional to these facts.

ChuckMcM 4y ago

And then there are psychopathic workplaces where management hires anxious and vulnerable employees in order to maintain their own sense of dominance over those who work for them. I talked with a managerial candidate once who considered this a "good strategy" because "you can make them work 80 hrs a week and they won't complain". At the end of that interview I wasn't sure if I should call social services or not. It was pretty deeply unsettling for me.

ikekkdcjkfke 4y ago
Well a slave needs a slave driver, there's a place for everything
xyzelement 4y ago
That sounds horrible. And very likely not totally uncommon. But I think that's orthogonal to whether hiring crazy people makes other people in your company crazier.
- ChuckMcM 4y ago
  True, was responding to the comment more than the article. That "morale" is contagious does not seem to me to be a particularly surprising finding. Nor that a person's mental health can affect their working relationship with someone and that person's mental health. Anyone who has lead groups of people gets an intuitive sense of that pretty quickly. And I think the author is trying to put that intuition on a more reasoned footing, which I think is a good effort, but mental health is rather hard to measure quantitatively so it resists this form of analysis pretty strongly.
HarryHirsch 4y ago
One can make a good case that in the long run everyone is better off with workers rights. The bullying that is so prevalent in the US workplace is deeply unhealthy and at the end of the day, damaging to productivity.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

_cenw 4y ago

I don't want to assume too much, but may I ask how well set up your safety net is in case you get fired? I'd assume that hedge fund managers are pretty well set up, and they don't have to be too concerned about losing their jobs. Is it really too surprising people with a less cozy backup fund are anxious when the person next to them lost their livelihood in an instant, especially in this macroeconomic environment where getting hired again is far from certain? I'm just saying, if losing your job hits the "safety" level of your pyramid of needs, is the looming threat really so unreasonable to be anxious about?

xyzelement 4y ago
Good clarification. In all cases the people I worked with were highly paid tech workers facing a great job market. The objective reality was "you'll be fine and you'll find a job quickly" The amount of anxiety was not proportional to these facts.