Navigating Mental Illness at Work Using Disengagement and Engagement Pathways

Nearly 20% of adults in the United States experience mental illness, or chronic conditions that influence the way people think, feel, and act, that may initially seem incompatible with the demands of work. Yet, many employees with mental illness are professionally successful. The present research builds theory about mental illness at work by investigating how employees with mental illness experience their conditions and how they navigate their symptoms vis-à-vis their employment. Based on 59 interviews with participants that have diagnosed mood and anxiety disorders, our findings elucidate that employees temporarily alter their work engagement—either by pulling back through various types of disengagement (physical, task, social) or by increasing their engagement in various elements of their work. Our findings show that disengagement is crucial in enabling employees with mental illness to balance symptom management and stable job performance. Our theoretical model specifies types of disengagement and engagement and the mechanisms that explain their relationship to wellness and work outcomes, including suffering reduction, image preservation, and distraction. These findings provide a nuanced view of the ways employees with mental illness navigate their symptoms, with implications for better understanding how mental illness influences affective, cognitive, and embodied experiences at work.