"Surprisingly, the study indicates that a heavy workload has no effect on whether or not employees become depressed. Instead, it is the work environment and the feeling of being treated unfairly by the management that has the greatest effect on an employee’s mood."
I guess there are many ways to improve the work environment (and many ways not to), but how do you improve fairness. Isn't it too late the moment you recognize unfairness?
Let me illustrate with an example from the best Division director I ever had. He came to us from NIST and valued analytical work, which made him a perfect fit for our materials characterization division. On numerous occasions when we would raise concerns over decisions our client divisions made that we felt hurt the company. He would go (or go with us) to have uncomfortable discussions with clients. On three occasions he made decisions that that adversely affected me and each time I went to him, he listened to my case and changed his decision. He was not afraid to say "no" if one couldn't build a case. The all time winner came when we needed to buy an expensive piece of equipment. At the time, capital would frequently become available near the end of the year because other divisions overestimated their needs. We then had the opportunity to purchase the instrument. This was the first year when management bonuses were tied to budget performance. Signing the order meant forfeiting his bonus. He signed it. That showed me that he valued long term organizational well being over his own short term profit. He made his share of questionable decisions - as all human beings do, but always retained my respect and loyalty.
The cult of cheerful actually has a purpose. No need to improve working conditions when you can choose those candidates from the pool that will put up with the workplace as it is.
Improving conditions is more difficult - it's the supervisors that set the tone, and changing entrenched habits is a hard task.
This is why HR is evil.
Unfairness is not hard to detect. Just put yourself in the other person's shoes and see if you would like to be treated this way. Corporate and business ethics are well established with tons of case studies and guidelines, mostly common sense. If only there was somebody to read them.
If I'm making significantly less than others who produce the same amount and quality of output that I do, or making less by people who produce less, then I raise it as a point with management.
If nothing is changed when review time rolls around then it's on me to take action and look for another job. If I decide to stay somewhere that I'm unhappy, that's on me too.
As an adult, I'm not going to stand around and whine about unfair conditions. If I perceive a problem, I create a change in my life.
Last time I checked the recession was still ongoing, and the latest labour survey showed voluntary separations still to be uncommonly low. I'm aware that computing is quite shielded, but the Danish study isn't about you. It includes everyone else, too, and most are in a worse position.
What should differentiate a group of developers with the same job title of say Agile Developer, where there is no junior-mid-senior? A set base pay with bonuses based on performance, or the wild west where 50 yr old Bob who is stuck in 80s programming practices makes more than 24 yr old Jack makes considerably less yet has to be corrected much less?
It's disheartening as hell to realize the person who brings almost no value makes x-5k where x is your salary, with no bonus structure. Developer culture is stupid hard to convince to non developers. In our world, a meritocracy is highly favored. Based on talent not negotiating skills from talentless hacks.
You give people more responsibility. You give them more control over their workplace, somehow. And, most important of all - you listen.