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Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

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Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#31

First hand experience. As a founder it's terrifying to let people know that you are experiencing debilitating levels of burnout, anxiety and moderate depression that prevent you from being effective at your job. There are days when you're just sitting there staring at your screen for 10 hours hoping nobody can tell you're checked out. You put on a smile, try to follow the usual routine as a robot, and secretly go to…

Uhg, I am in that exact situation right now. I've done the therapy thing in the past, didn't help. Meds in the past seemed to help but hard to isolate them as THE factor that helped me out of a rut. So now I feel out of options. I am so burned out. So much on my plate, so much work to do, and literally not one neuron fires to get me going. My memory and mental function, at an all time low. I gotta believe this just g…

Ya'll are lucky that you can afford therapy. There are many who cannot and whose insurance won't pay for it.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I think that's called a personal day here in the states. They usually give you two a year too, along with sick days. Though I do agree, that there's stigma towards taking it for personal sanity, mind healing.

Are sick days still a thing? At my job we get PTO and holidays (floating depending on the year), but no specific sick days. Apologies for any naivete.

Technically I think so, but from what I've seen some people use PTO days for sick days (or to go to the doctor)?

We have 6 holidays + 1 floating that we can use, and they don't roll over from year to year.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#34

First hand experience. As a founder it's terrifying to let people know that you are experiencing debilitating levels of burnout, anxiety and moderate depression that prevent you from being effective at your job. There are days when you're just sitting there staring at your screen for 10 hours hoping nobody can tell you're checked out. You put on a smile, try to follow the usual routine as a robot, and secretly go to…

Uhg, I am in that exact situation right now. I've done the therapy thing in the past, didn't help. Meds in the past seemed to help but hard to isolate them as THE factor that helped me out of a rut. So now I feel out of options. I am so burned out. So much on my plate, so much work to do, and literally not one neuron fires to get me going. My memory and mental function, at an all time low. I gotta believe this just g…

Have you tried various types of therapy or different therapists? In my experience, in order for therapy to be effective, I need to form a kind of trusting relationship or bond with the therapist. There are _many_ different techniques employed in modern therapy; trying different things to find out what works for you is key.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#35

First hand experience. As a founder it's terrifying to let people know that you are experiencing debilitating levels of burnout, anxiety and moderate depression that prevent you from being effective at your job. There are days when you're just sitting there staring at your screen for 10 hours hoping nobody can tell you're checked out. You put on a smile, try to follow the usual routine as a robot, and secretly go to…

Uhg, I am in that exact situation right now. I've done the therapy thing in the past, didn't help. Meds in the past seemed to help but hard to isolate them as THE factor that helped me out of a rut. So now I feel out of options. I am so burned out. So much on my plate, so much work to do, and literally not one neuron fires to get me going. My memory and mental function, at an all time low. I gotta believe this just g…

Ask for a sabbatical.

Take a month (or better yet, three). It will benefit both you and the company. Discuss options here, and whether or not it's paid (or paid partially).

It's a hard ask and a really hard conversation to start, but it sounds like you need the time.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I think that's called a personal day here in the states. They usually give you two a year too, along with sick days. Though I do agree, that there's stigma towards taking it for personal sanity, mind healing.

Are sick days still a thing? At my job we get PTO and holidays (floating depending on the year), but no specific sick days. Apologies for any naivete.

Depends on the company. I've been at places that separates them and places that don't. Before our acquisition we had 20 PTO and 10 sick days and after the acquisition we are at 25 PTO days with sick time included in that. My previous employer had unlimited sick time that was completely separate from PTO.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#37
My only issue with this is how he seems to lump in the "mental health" days that people without diagnosed mental health disorders face with the stigmatization that the other group feels. I fully support people who need to deal with mental fatigue in these ways, but if just taking time off "cures" your mental health issues, it's a different class of problem from what others are dealing with.

The "still" is incredibly premature when it comes to mental health in the workplace. We're just scratching the surface when it comes to acknowledging, accepting and understanding those with mental health disorders. Depression, ADHD and even Autism Spectrum and OCD are all on the leading edge of disorders that are receiving less stigmatization and more acceptance over time. But there's a lot more in the DSM-V that are completely misunderstood or completely unpublicized. And our workplaces are completely unprepared to deal with them.

I saw this first hand at my previous employer. We had a coworker who had a number of personal disagreements with other coworkers. In discussing it with my mother, a psychologist, she mentioned that much of his behavior sounded, to her, like someone with Borderline Personality Disorder. He was everyone's best friend up until they did anything he interpreted as being against him at which point he'd flip and try to sabotage them at every opportunity, including filing numerous baseless claims with HR. The organization was completely unprepared to deal with an individual like him. Each HR claim he filed was treated seriously, but there was never encouragement or a requirement that he talk to a trained mental health professional who could have been helped guide the company to a productive outcome. Instead, his conflicts with other employees caused at least 3 of them to quit before he was eventually forced out of the company for taking on someone who had too much pull with upper management. I can only imagine the carnage that would have been caused if he had been a she and had been able to abuse the sexual harassment policies.

HR is only trained to help the company avoid getting sued. But there's damage to both the employee and the company that can happen without the lawyers getting involved. The company's HR failed him and the rest of us that had to work with him by not knowing how to deal with that sort of psychological disorder.

Rather than "it's 2017 and mental health is still an issue," I'd say, "it's 2017 and we're finally starting to acknowledge the long road ahead of us."

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#39
post #4

Can someone please explain to me what is special with 2017?

I would say it's common to use the phrase "It's and..." when describing something that one finds appalling in modern society.

But how about "It's 2017 and 1+1 is still 2?"?

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#40

Great article. A few years ago (at a previous job) I took a sick day for "sanity", but told them I wasn't feeling well. I felt guilty about doing it. I think part of it is the association of sick leave with externally visible medical issues, and the corresponding "straightforward" medical verification. In other words, if you have a temperature or are vomiting, that's obvious. Many infections or physical injury can be…

>> I've never heard of anyone here being asked for a verification, but it would tend to discourage people doing the "sanity day" sort of thing.

I suspect that the lack of trust this indicates on the part of the company (not to mention foster on the part of the employee) is probably a sign that you're past the point of no return. I suspect a company that asked for verification was not doing so to see if you were genuinely ill, they're doing so because it's already a problem and they want a nice paper trail for when they terminate you. Of course if you are abusing it, I think that's totally reasonable.

But I think most of my employers (except for one, where I quit for exactly this kind of disrespect) would have had no problem with me saying, "hey I just need a mental break day in order to keep doing this job - I'm taking one of my sick days". If one significantly exceeds allocated sick days, then the reason starts mattering more.

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