The effect of depression behaviours and diagnostic label on hiring managers’ stigma

Stigma can greatly exacerbate the experience of depression and undermine the quality of life of people with mental illness, resulting in decreased life opportunities and a loss of independent functioning. Given the strong links between meaningful occupation, clinical improvement, and decreased service use among people with depression, it is particularly concerning that individuals with depression are often unable to obtain and retain employment. To understand this phenomenon, it is thus important to understand the hiring perspectives of employers and how attitudes are manifested behaviourally in the work context, as employers are the gatekeepers to work and its corresponding income, benefits, and inherent social network. This research investigated the degree of stigma present in hiring managers towards potential employees with: a) normal behaviour, b) symptoms of depression, and c) symptoms of depression and a diagnostic label of depression. One hundred and sixty two hiring managers read three vignettes describing a potential employee, and completed scales assessing each of the three components of stigma (stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination). Results revealed that hiring managers possessed a significantly greater degree of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination toward a potential employee depicted as displaying symptoms of depression compared to a potential employee depicted as displaying no depression symptoms. The addition of a depression diagnosis increased hiring managers’ degree of stereotypes, but did not have a significant effect on reported prejudice or discrimination. This research has important implications for stigma-change, recruitment discrimination and mental illness disclosure in the workplace