If asked what conditions might qualify you to receive workers’ compensation benefits, like many in Wauwatosa, you would likely limit your answer to injuries resulting from a workplace accident. It may be for this very reason why you have not talked to your employer about the depression you are suffering from. It might seem odd to cite depression as the reason you need workers’ compensation benefits (as many may say that it is next to impossible to empirically prove that your job is the source of it). This prompts the question as to whether or not it is possible.
Depression has been recognized as having an impact in the workplace (indeed, according to information shared by the professional safety publication EHS Today, depression effects a $51 billion cost on the American workplace every year). Yet that impact is often viewed from the perspective of you experiencing depression due to having suffered a work-related injury. What if depression is your work-related injury?
Workers’ compensation benefits might still be available to you to help in the treatment of your depression. To secure them, you need to show that the functions of your job are the source of your issues. Typically this requires both the confirmation of a medical professional that your depression is due to your job, as well as a state-run review that reaches the same conclusion.
How can you show that your depression is due to your work? Common causes of work-related depression include:
- Feeling overworked and overwhelmed
- Trying to do too much
- Experiencing alienation in your office
- Feeling burned out
- Struggles learning new technologies and techniques
- Being bullied
Documented incidents of any of the above activity can help to support your claim.
