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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

#61

Post by Asooka »

steven777400 wrote: post #5

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'm a bit confused, how is a mental sick day different from just taking a day off? Right now I can just request a day off with no explanation required as long as it's one day in advance. Is a "mental sick day" like waking up, going "!@#$%@#^! I'm sick of dealing with work" and calling in sick on the same day?

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#62

Post by wu-ikkyu »

calafrax wrote: post #8
steven777400 wrote: post #5

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…

Medically speaking a mental illness is no different than a physical illness. Mental illness does not have to be severe just as physical illness does not have to be severe. Sick leave policies typically only require a doctors note/visit if you are absent for multiple days. Taking a single day off for mild mental illness, something like elevated stress levels causing anxiety that interrupts your sleep, seems perfectly…

>Medically speaking a mental illness is no different than a physical illness.

I am a proponent of taking time off for mental health, but I have to nitpick here. Medically speaking, physical illness is different from mental illness. One is diagnosed from objective scientific tests (pathology) while the other is not.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#63

Post by Dirlewanger »

mistermann wrote: post #53
Dirlewanger wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a meme that John Oliver popularized, and people like to use it as an argument, when it's just a shitty strawman.

Considering how effective it is in persuasion, "shitty" is probably not an entirely accurate adjective.

Donald Trump memes were also very effective in persuasion for certain parts of the Internet this past presidential election.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#64

Post by phil21 »

throwaway2928 wrote: post #50

Not that long ago, I was considering joining a startup where an old manager of mine was the head of eng. They seemed to be doing some cool stuff, another friend had recently joined and spoke well of it, and I thought I'd give it a go. As part of that process, my old manager took me out for coffee to talk about the company, etc. When we chatted, he basically laid down that he was concerned- when I had worked for him,…

This is where it gets tricky.

Is your negative attitude due to a medical condition or you just being an asshole who has an attitude problem?

And is that even material to the decision to hire you or not? No one really cares why you act like that, they simply care that you do.

I'm going to say it's entirely on you to present yourself in a positive light at work, and I honestly think your ex-manager was doing you a solid there. The typical way this plays out is your mental condition (or possibility of one) gets discussed by management behind closed doors and you never know why you didn't receive that offer or promotion. And yes, based on my limited experience with larger companies this is exceedingly common at the executive level. The one thing you don't want on your "record" is a history of mental health issues - there is no recovery to your (management) career once that is known.

In your case I think you simply had the curtain pulled back a little, out of consideration from your past manager.

Your other points stand though.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#65

Post by altonzheng »

msla wrote: post #59
altonzheng wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're being downvoted, thought you had some great points. As someone who has struggled with mental health myself in the past, I'm kind of wary of the whole "let's reduce depression down to how we would treat a broken arm." argument. While it's good intentioned, and I totally agree we need to reduce its stigma in society, I wonder if it does more harm then good in the long run. Depression is a disease of…

> Not sure why you're being downvoted Probably because of the toxic tone.

Huh really, didn't get that vibe but okay.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#66

Post by cryoshon »

msla wrote: post #59
altonzheng wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're being downvoted, thought you had some great points. As someone who has struggled with mental health myself in the past, I'm kind of wary of the whole "let's reduce depression down to how we would treat a broken arm." argument. While it's good intentioned, and I totally agree we need to reduce its stigma in society, I wonder if it does more harm then good in the long run. Depression is a disease of…

> Not sure why you're being downvoted Probably because of the toxic tone.

if you don't fear negativity it can't hurt you

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#67

Post by rnprince »

DonbunEf7 wrote: post #28

I couldn't afford to do this. My mental illness is sufficiently severe that I need months, not days, to unpack and unwind, and I haven't felt not-burnt-out in about half a decade. I only get to do this between jobs. I'm glad that this situation worked out alright for the employee, but there often isn't enough sick leave available.

Does FMLA leave apply for cases like yours?

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#68

Post by [deleted] »

acuozzo wrote: post #58
zitterbewegung wrote: post #2

I applaud the author for destigmatizing mental health issues. More companies need to be like this. Its really hard for people to understand mental health issues because you have to take many optional classes to even get an idea of what they are. Also, many people throw around terms like psychopath / ADD(ADHD) and either diagnose themselves or others and that can lead to more stigma or even misunderstandings. I think…

> Also, many people throw around terms like psychopath / ADD(ADHD) I can't stand this because I suffer from a double whammy: true diagnosed comorbid ADHD and OCD which people assume means that I'm just really hyper and picky. Also, people nowadays tend to assume that I was self-diagnosed (I wasn't) which I find to be a rather disrespectful and demeaning assumption. Living with ADHD and OCD as a computer programmer is…

[deleted]

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#69

Post by dragonwriter »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #62
calafrax wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medically speaking a mental illness is no different than a physical illness. Mental illness does not have to be severe just as physical illness does not have to be severe. Sick leave policies typically only require a doctors note/visit if you are absent for multiple days. Taking a single day off for mild mental illness, something like elevated stress levels causing anxiety that interrupts your sleep, seems perfectly…

>Medically speaking a mental illness is no different than a physical illness. I am a proponent of taking time off for mental health, but I have to nitpick here. Medically speaking, physical illness is different from mental illness. One is diagnosed from objective scientific tests (pathology) while the other is not.

> Medically speaking, physical illness is different from mental illness. One is diagnosed from objective scientific tests (pathology) while the other is not.

Not all “physical” (the term is not really the correct distinction, since all illness, including mental illness, is physical) illness is diagnosed directly in that manner (not all physical illness can be, because not all is understood well enough to have definitive tests, and it's not always clinical practice to do so even when it is possible in principle.) And, on the other side, some psychiatric conditions have lab tests of the same sort available.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#70

Post by strathmeyer »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #48
xname2 wrote: post #4

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

It's a meme that John Oliver popularized, and people like to use it as an argument, when it's just a shitty strawman.

Not understanding satire is a sign of autism.
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