Score Another Point for Happy Hours

I posted earlier this year about the D.C. Circuit reversing the NLRB's refusal to find that an employer committed an unfair labor practice by implementing a broad no-fraternization policy.  A recent study provides further reason for employers to allow, if not encourage, employee fraternization.  According to the New York Times:

[A] new report shows that the solution to work stress may be found in the cubicle next door. Employees who feel social support at work are far less likely to suffer serious depression problems, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center studied data collected from more than 24,000 Canadian workers in 2002. They found that 5 percent of the workers suffered from serious bouts of depression. [In examining those findings], the Rochester scientists detected a surprising trend. People who said they felt generally supported by their colleagues and could lean on co-workers in a time of crisis were spared the rigors of job stress. In the study, men and women who felt little social support at work were two to three times more likely to suffer major bouts of depression. . . .

The findings are especially important to employers and managers who sometimes view fraternizing by colleagues as a distraction that interferes with productivity. But Dr. Robertson Blackmore notes that because work friendships lower job stress and risk for major depression, employees who get along and support each other are likely to be more productive. Depression at work reduces employee productivity, increases disability and absences and may lead to premature retirement, the journal report notes.

I'd like to think that this conclusion is obvious, but that's clearly not the case.  At least now I'll have a good excuse to give my wife when I go out for a drink with colleagues.

-JH