It’s winter again. The days are short, the nights are long, and one day, you notice some of your employees are … a little less engaged than they usually are. They’re moving more slowly, maybe someone accidentally sleeps through the morning standup meeting, and their ideas just don’t sparkle like they did a few months ago. You might be encountering seasonal affective disorder (SAD), otherwise known as seasonal depression. Yes, it’s very real, and it’s impacting your organization’s long-term success — that is, unless you know how to help your people through it. Read on to learn how.
Seasonal affective disorder: An overview
Officially identified in 1984, seasonal affective disorder is a clinical condition that looks like another common mental health concern — depression — but is directly linked to the changing of the seasons. In fact, it’s considered a subtype of major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. The U.S. National Institutes of Health describe SAD as depressive episodes that follow a seasonal pattern, usually starting in late autumn or early winter and ebbing as the days get longer, by spring.
An official SAD diagnosis requires at least two consecutive years of symptoms, but plenty of people suffer from the condition without diagnosis, attributing their symptoms to “winter blues” and other seasonal causes. Medically speaking, SAD has no exact, agreed-upon cause — just like there’s no exact, agreed-upon cause of major depressive disorder — but researchers have found that sunlight deficiency and hormonal changes with the seasons both play a major part in its onset.
Symptoms of seasonal affective disorder
The symptoms of seasonal depression are very similar to those you’d see in other forms of depression, including:
- Persistent sad, anxious or “empty” moods
- Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
- Feelings of guilt, worthlessness or helplessness
- Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and once-enjoyed activities, including sex
- Sleeping difficulties, such as trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or excessive sleeping
- Eating too much or too little
- Fatigue, lack of energy or feeling “slowed down”
- Restlessness or irritability
- Difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions
- Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive issues and chronic pain
- Thoughts of death or suicide, or self-harm or suicide attempts
Thanks to the seasonal aspect of SAD, however — the fact that it’s likely cold and dark when it’s happening — those struggling with this particular type of depression are more likely to deal with more specific symptoms, such as:
- Sleeping too much (hypersomnia)
- Overeating and carbohydrate craving
- Significant fatigue (lethargy)
Another unique dimension to SAD is the geographic element. The further from the equator your employees are, the more likely it is that they’ll suffer from it — team members in Canada , Alaska, New England, New Zealand and Scandinavia, for example, may be more likely to feel these symptoms, because their daylight hours are more drastically reduced than others’ in autumn and wintertime, and they’re more likely to be dealing with prohibitive weather like snowstorms, ice and so on.
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Having a hard time telling the difference? Here are the signs Dr. Matthew Chow, TELUS Health's Chief Mental Health Officer, says to look out for.
Impact of seasonal affective disorder on productivity
Like depression, seasonal affective disorder can have a noticeable impact on the body. It can disrupt a person’s circadian rhythms, change their melatonin and serotonin levels, and increase the effects of the sun’s setting and how dark it gets. This naturally means that how they show up to work can change, too.
At work, SAD symptoms might look like oversleeping, low motivation, slowed pace and a lack of engagement (i.e., phoning it in). Research from the TELUS Mental Health Index found that poor sleep quality made for decreased productivity in a third of Canadian workers (32 per cent), a quarter of American workers (27 per cent), and a quarter of UK workers (26 per cent), meaning SAD symptoms will no doubt have an impact, too. These symptoms have big effects, and employers need ways to meet employees where they are and ensure they have the tools and support they need.
How to help employees fight SAD
Seasonal depression will look different for different people, so employers should offer a variety of resources and support routes, from the cultural to the clinical, to help meet their workers’ needs.
Emphasize empathetic leadership
In the most recent TELUS Mental Health Index report, 45 per cent of those surveyed said they worry about career repercussions if their workplace were to find out about a mental health issue, so the first step in fighting seasonal depression is to create a company culture without stigma — starting with leadership.
Managers who know their direct reports well are more likely to pick up on their behaviours, especially when it changes. That’s why trust between managers and their teams is essential. With proper training and guidance from leadership, managers can learn to tell the difference between depression and unrelated performance issues so they can manage expectations and offer support and accommodations as needed. Here are some quick ways managers can be on the lookout for SAD:
- Be curious about people’s wellbeing. Ask how they’re doing, in 1-on-1 meetings and team chats
- Watch for declines in performance, absenteeism, distractibility and personality changes
- If they’re struggling, ask if it seems to have a seasonal pattern. Does everything get harder at the same time each year?
- If it seems like it could be SAD, remind them that it’s common and treatable, and that getting help and feeling better are possible
- Suggest talking to a professional — a family doctor, nurse practitioner, therapist or counsellor, EAP provider, etc. — and encourage taking advantage of other company benefits and policies
Ensure your employee benefit packages are comprehensive
A supportive manager can only go so far. That’s why leaders need to ensure employees have access to benefits that provide critical mental and physical health support like talk therapy, medication and supplements. An EAP, for example, can offer access to counselling and healthcare professionals as well as resources that can enhance wellbeing. Leaders need to tell employees that these benefits are both available and totally confidential — and regularly remind them how to access them.
Offer a phototherapy (light therapy) stipend
Especially during the darker autumn and winter months, employers and managers should be encouraging employees to step away from their computers throughout the day to spend time outside during daylight hours. This may take the form of lunch hours, between-meeting breaks or even walking meetings.
But that may not be enough for people struggling with SAD. In addition to traditional benefits, employers should consider offering SAD-specific support in the form of a stipend for phototherapy, also known as light therapy. This involves using lamps called light boxes, the bulbs in which mimic sunlight (and thus stimulate vitamin D production) and can offer a supplement to those shorter daylight hours to help people keep their circadian rhythms on track. The science supports this: one analysis of multiple studies found that phototherapy was much more effective than other SAD therapies.
Encourage mental health days, flexible work and accommodations
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that depression and anxiety cost the global economy roughly 12 billion working days every year, racking up roughly $1 trillion USD in lost productivity. And SAD is no doubt a contributor to those numbers. This is why company policies that prioritize mental health — and make sure employees feel comfortable taking advantage of them — can help make organizations successful in the long term. Here’s what these policies can look like:
- Flexible PTO and covered mental health days
- Options for remote work
- Flexible working hours (shifted or broken-up schedules)
- Other individual accommodations as needed
Seasonal affective disorder impacts a person’s ability to show up for work like any other depression, so as an organization, you’ll want to treat it like you’d treat any employee disability. Be supportive of your team’s needs and accommodations, and the science says you’ll see their engagement and productivity bounce back.
Employee mental health is a year-round commitment
While most people who deal with SAD struggle during the winter, there are some who experience it in the summertime, though this is rarer. This fact is a good reminder that prioritizing employee mental health isn’t a halfway measure — it needs tending all year round.
Doing so has a lasting impact, in turn, on the health of your organization. In the same way that giving people access to preventive care is cheaper than forcing them to rely solely on emergency healthcare, proactively addressing SAD and other mental health issues is a maintenance measure that can ensure the wellbeing of your employees — and your organization’s success — in the long run.