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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

#241

Post by phil21 »

throwaway2928 wrote: post #135
phil21 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 soli…

> Is your negative attitude due to a medical condition or you just being an asshole who has an attitude problem? I'm always unsure. These days, I'm generally a pretty positive guy but I know I've struggled in the past. On this particular team I was definitely not the biggest asshole. In fact, after this manager left, the biggest asshole was fired pretty much based on the fact that the new managers weren't willing to…

> After I withdrew my application he made sure to tell friends of mine that he had rejected me because of my depression. Really mature, that guy is.

Sorry, I just wanted to post to say I completely misread that. I dropped the sentence before the mature statement. I felt a seperate post was warranted.

In that case where he talked about it to others? You should have sued the fuck out of him. That is unacceptable in any situation. This kind of changes the entire tone of my follow-on posts, so I do apologize.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#242

Post by thaumasiotes »

lovich wrote: post #228
TallGuyShort wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

graduated with a B.S. 5 years ago debt-free with no help from parents . It's possible.

Id certainly believe that it's possible to do so. However, in the same way that anyone could be president, not everyone can be. Lots of colleges don't even have enough jobs in the area to support every student working, and the number of hours you'd have to work can prevent anyone with a difficulty major from doing so Edit:I did say _anyone_ in the past 20 years so that is some unfortunate hyperbole on my part

> Lots of colleges don't even have enough jobs in the area to support every student working

This doesn't make a lot of conceptual sense. If 100,000 people move into a town of formerly-3000, they will severely outnumber the open job slots from before they moved in, but that doesn't mean no work is available for any of them. Most of them will find work just as most people everywhere find work.

Work is available to anyone who can do something productive.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#243

Post by Jaruzel »

draw_down wrote: post #175
lazyasciiart wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I decided years ago to avoid detail in "I'm sick" emails, because I don't want to one day think "do I need to say I have horrendous diarrhea, or can i just say I'm sick?"

Me too, I also used to say "I have an appointment on Thursdays" instead of telling people I was going to the shrink. Though I'm guessing that code was not exactly impenetrable.

I did exactly the same when I was in therapy the time before last. The only person who knew where I actually was, was my Manager (and I guess HR as well) - but my team (peers and subordinates) didn't know. I felt at the time this was the correct way to handle it.

Third time around in therapy (last year), I decided to be very open about my mental health, and the steps I was taking to help myself. So my emails became 'I can't do that then, I'm in therapy.'.

I found personally, that being honest and open to everyone about my problems actually contributed in a small way to my recovery effort. Even now, stabilised and medicated, I'm still honest and open about my [ongoing] journey, and who I was as person then, and who I am now.

I am never going to lie about being crazy again, it's not healthy.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#244

Post by mahyarm »

exclusiv wrote: post #234
sedachv wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Note that many of the working poor got themselves into that position because of their choices, generally they had a kid at 16 and dropped out of school as a result The vast majority of teenage mothers in the United States do not choose to get pregnant and do not have the choice of terminating their pregnancy. They either do not have access to abortion providers - the majority of women in the United States do not ha…

Everyone has access to birth control though. It's common knowledge how reproduction works. You have condoms, birth control pills and copper rings among other options. If you miss that you got plan b. Let's set aside your personal vendetta against the pro lifer Christians. How can you claim that the vast majority of pregnant teenagers don't choose to get pregnant?

Americans don't have universal healthcare, can't just go walk in some clinic / pharmacy and get a doctor / pharmacist to Rx you some birth control.

You also have minimal->zero private money and come from a poor background so it's too expensive. Your parents are religious and it's difficult to privately have & use birth control. Copper IUDs create pretty bad periods and are more painful to insert if you never given birth. Giving yourself a megadose of hormones with other implants is pretty freaky.

But your 16 years old and have a lot of hormones...

That is part of the reason why the entire obamacare free birth control fight was pretty emotional in the USA.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#245

Post by thaumasiotes »

wfunction wrote: post #161
omegaworks wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>by the low-wage masses abusing it (and abuse it they did). This feeds directly into the popular narrative that the working poor somehow lack moral fortitude. Do you have evidence to justify this claim?

>> by the low-wage masses abusing it (and abuse it they did). > This feeds directly into the popular narrative that the working poor somehow lack moral fortitude. Do you have evidence to justify this claim? I wouldn't be surprised if it's far more common among low-wage-job-holders that aren't poor, actually.

That would make sense if we were talking about unpaid time off, but we're talking about PTO.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#246

Post by stordoff »

sharkweek wrote: post #14
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…

I suffer with OCD - and I mostly let it go when people say "I'm so OCD" about needing something organized, or wanting something cleaned, etc. But I do try and educate others on what OCD actually does to people like myself when the opportunity presents itself as it's definitely one of the most misunderstood disorders. It can easily ruin a day/week for me if I let the intrusive thoughts take over. Anyone interested, ta…

I just want to highlight one line from that article that is easy to overlook:

> People with OCD understand that their notions do not correspond with reality

It's like having two thought processes running simultaneously - there's one set that is exactly how I was pre-OCD, and there's another that is _constantly_ trying to inject the various obsessions and compulsions. It's really disconcerting to have thoughts that don't really feel like your own thoughts, recognise them as dumb and irrational, yet end up acting on them anyway.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#247

Post by Osmium »

curun1r wrote: post #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…

> like someone with Borderline Personality Disorder

A small note that borderline personality disorder, like many mental disorders, is a complex condition. Specifically, a person must meet 5 of 9 diagnostic criteria in the DSM to be diagnosed with BPD; since they can meet any 5 of those 9, this means that many individuals with BPD can present very differently. This is a weakness of the DSM.

BPD specifically is problematic: it has only been well understood in the last few decades, and has an undeserved reputation due to media portrayals. Even the name is controversial, with the 'borderline' name a throwback to the very early days of psychiatry. Alternative names like "emotional dysregulation disorder" are now commonly preferred to avoid these associations.

All this to say: while the OP's experiences are valid, care must be taken not to generalize behavior from one person with a disorder to other people with the same disorder. This is how stigmas arise.

[Disclaimer: not a professional, have just read a little on these matters and, like many of us in this thread, have known people who struggle with mental illness.]

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#249

Post by wfunction »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #245
wfunction wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> by the low-wage masses abusing it (and abuse it they did). > This feeds directly into the popular narrative that the working poor somehow lack moral fortitude. Do you have evidence to justify this claim? I wouldn't be surprised if it's far more common among low-wage-job-holders that aren't poor, actually.

That would make sense if we were talking about unpaid time off, but we're talking about PTO.

Sorry, I don't follow. The working poor have a lot to lose through abusing PTO -- losing a job is devastating for them. So I would expect them to be less likely to abuse it. Contrast it with the non-poor who work low-paying jobs... losing a job isn't that huge of a risk for them. So naturally there's a lower barrier to abuse. This is true regardless of whether the time off is paid or unpaid. Or I guess even whether we're talking about time off, or about anything else at work really.
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