Employees with depression may find work challenging at times because the condition can have cognitive, social, emotional, and even physical effects.

Depression can interfere with a person’s ability to focus on tasks, stay organized, keep pace with the work routine and use effective communication skills and other abilities that influence work performance.

Intervention programs amongst other objectives should also attempt to restore work-related functional abilities, such as time management, balancing workload and completing work on time, as well as providing support for difficult interactions with co-workers and supervisors.

In treating depression it has also been found that telephone-based models work very well as employees are sometimes hesitant to get help for a condition like depression and telephone counselling allows employees to have a more anonymous interaction.

Effective management of employee depression is shown to result in reduced absenteeism and presenteeism and to have a positive return on investment.