Psychiatrists Create "Presenteeism"

(Queensland, Australia) The Queensland Center for Mental Health Research conducted a survey which found that five percent of Australian workers display symptoms of "presenteeism." Unlike absenteeism where employees don't go to work, presentees show up but are out of sorts because of stress, depression or anxiety.

Presentees do their jobs but don't function at 100 percent. Therefore, according to Project Director Dr. Michael Hilton, hundreds of millions of dollars are lost to the economy every year.

Since this is the first time I've heard of mental health professionals being concerned about workplace efficiency and the state of the overall economy, I'm suspicious of the motive. I don't think they really care about the stated concerns. But wait, there's clarification.

"Five per cent or one in 20 people had very high levels of psychological distress with symptoms consistent with anxiety or depression but the really, really scary part about that was that only 20 per cent were in treatment, which means that 80 per cent were not in treatment."

Ah hah! There's the really, really scary rub. The psychiatrists want more clients. So, they came up with a phony survey as evidence that more tax dollars are needed to treat workers who are slacking off on the job.

Frankly, I think that most employers would be thrilled to have 95 percent of their workers doing a bang-up job. About workers being stressed, depressed or anxious, wouldn't that be everybody at one time or another? Crikey! That's life. Get a divorce, have a traffic accident, experience a house fire -- all those and other life experiences cause stress, depression and anxiety. And, most people recover.

Of course, the psychiatrists' survey ploy is common. They see a big pie of Aussie tax dollars devoted to the socialized health care system and they want a bigger piece.

Disclaimer: Ten thousands miles from Australia, what the hell do I know?