In postindustrial work, sadness has become taboo. In contexts of competitiveness, working and living make people sad. We sought to reconstruct and understand this path, going from expression of sadness to diagnosis of depression, in a qualitative study using the hermeneutic-dialectic analysis method. We interviewed 13 workers, 13 managers and 8 health technicians from one company. We also conducted document analysis on house organs. We observed that the process of becoming ill began when managers sent sad people to the medical sector, where they were treated medically as cases of depression. Some information from managers and health technicians revealed ethical lapses. The diagnosis of depression exempts the company from responsibility for making that life sad. We concluded that this diagnosis constitutes a way of not giving other meaning to sadness and its relationship with work. This is an ethical injury that implies exclusion of individuals without an appearance of well-being.
Suffering; Depression; Occupational Health; Psychology of work