[Association of work load and mental disorders: review of the data]

Currently, the two faces of work as described by Kurt Lewin (The socialization of the Taylor system. A fundamental examination of work and vocational psychology 1920) are clearly pronounced. Thus, work can be beneficial to personal development and well-being as work is a possible source of learning opportunities, motivation and positive emotional states. On the other hand there are a growing number of complaints about stress and exhaustion because of high work load and working days lost due to incapacity to work because of mental ill health are increasing. The question arises whether there is a relationship between work load and mental health. This article presents information on the data and tries to clarify if the relationship between work load and mental health results more due to bad job design than a distorted response behavior due to mental illness.