16 CHAPTER 1 1 on disclosure to family and friends in the military (76), but not on disclosure in the workplace. To our knowledge, this has only been directly examined within the German military, with a qualitative study examining attitudes toward disclosure among German soldiers and their comrades (73). This study showed that common negative stereotypes about soldiers with MHI were weakness and incompetence and that disclosing MHI was expected to lead to gossip, discrimination, and negative career consequences (73). Although research on disclosure to a supervisor was almost completely lacking within the military, there has been more research on the disclosure of MHI in civilian workplace settings, and therefore this literature will now be discussed. Toth and Dewa (77) proposed a model of employee decision-making about the disclosure of MHI at work, see figure 4. According to this model, employees begin from a default position of non-disclosure of MHI. This default position of non-disclosure is caused by three factors; (1) fear of stigmatization, (2) employees wanting to maintain boundaries in the workplace, especially between work and home lives, and (3) employees wishing to maintain confidentiality. According to the model, a triggering incident is needed, before employees start to assess the risks and benefits of disclosure and make a disclosure decision. Research has shown that this decision was often purely driven by consideration of negative aspects of disclosure – neglecting the potential positive aspects such as (temporary) work adjustments (78). While the model proposes a default position of non-disclosure, recent research among Dutch employees suggests that there might not be a default of non-disclosure in the Netherlands. Of those with MHI, 73% indicated that they had disclosed their MHI to their supervisor (29), and of those without MHI, 75% indicated that they would disclose to their supervisor if they would develop MHI in the future (79). Participants indicated that important reasons to disclose their MHI were the responsibility belonging to their job and that they ‘did not want to hide’ (29). Figure 4. Model of employee decision-making about disclosure of a mental disorder at work (77).
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