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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

#341

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

curun1r wrote: post #309
pdeuchler wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> But that doesn't mean that it's not valuable to use incomplete information to speculate on a diagnosis in other settings. Jesus man, how do you write something like that in the comments for an article about removing mental health stigmas and improving care for those effected?

Try reading literally the next sentence following the one you quoted out of context. Please stop taking things that people write out of context and triggering off them for faux-outrage. You're attacking a strawman and not adding anything positive to the community. It's a form of bullying that results in less nuance in the discussion. Sorry to vent, but this is becoming alarmingly common in discussions here and I feel…

There are good, non-hypothetical reasons that publicly diagnosing living people without their consent is considered a bad thing to do. This came to a head with psychiatrists trying to diagnose Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in the news media [1], but the general principle that it's uncouth or even unethical to publicly speculate about a person's mental health status has been more broadly adopted in many circles. Please consider the possibility that what you're seeing is not "faux-outrage", but people who genuinely disapprove of your overall line of argument.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwater_rule

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#342

Post by danpalmer »

While I think most companies need to do better at making this acceptable, and I'm in no way downplaying the importance of treating mental health like any other health issue...

One of the things I like about our unlimited/flexible vacation policy is that I don't have to justify time off and can take it at short notice. I think there's quite a spectrum from "vacation for an event", through "vacation to relax" to "time off for burnout" and finally to "sick days for mental health" – I don't think there are clear cut lines between some of these. I tend to take relatively short notice days off to relax and recharge after stressful periods, and while I call it a vacation day, it's probably much closer to this. Unlimited vacation policies get a lot of criticism, but I see this as a big benefit.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#343

Post by brookside »

Jaruzel wrote: post #293
nf05papsjfVbc wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might I ask if the using the word 'crazy' at the end was a conscious choice? I do not wish to pry or pose a rhetorical question. I'm curious only because from the rest of the email you seem to be speaking in a dispassionate manner about the situation but that bit stood out as being different. I could be way off the mark of course. I intend no disrespect or ill-will of any kind. I understand if you just say "None of y…

Nah, it's fine :) 'Crazy' is how I view myself. It helps me accept my broken brain, and more importantly, makes it easier to stay on the meds. Without the meds, I'm into serious depression and anxiety territory. It's no fun being there, so better to call myself Crazy. It is what it is. Also, I use self depreciating humour as defence mechanism. People I know personally don't like it when I call myself Crazy though, no…

IMHO defining yourself as "having" or even "being" some mental health label can be reinforcing and self defeating.

And if I had a friend who defined themselves as crazy that would honestly strike me as obnoxious. (I'd give a pass for schizophrenia or the like. Then your brain truly would be broken).

I say this having struggled in my own way (as, many, many - probably the majority - of people do at some point) with forms of anxiety and depression.

Everybody is trying to focus. Everybody is trying to be happy and stable. Everybody is trying to get by.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#344

Post by mythrwy »

vizeroth wrote: post #252
TallGuyShort wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nothing to do with morals. Unsafe sex at an early age is just plain a stupid dangerous decision, and there's plenty of people to tell you that. Sure - I feel bad for the people who are now going to be paying for the consequences for the rest of their lives, but it's not some arbitrary religious code. It's not so different from experimenting with drugs in that regard.

Kids make stupid and dangerous decisions because their brains aren't fully developed, they don't have the same sense of perspective that they will (hopefully) have as adults. Once upon a time, this was part of why we had a separate judicial system for them, too. Religion comes into play because the lobby against making birth control available to teenagers is also the lobby against abortion clinics (and any clinics th…

Religion _was_ the birth control for a long time. It appears to have stopped working sometime in the late 1960's though.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#345

Post by qb45 »

pdeuchler wrote: post #123
curun1r wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trump has something wrong with him, he'll never get treated A bit off-topic, but in case you're interested in that 'something', here's one analysis from a psychologist that made the rounds of liberal psychologists that my mother associates with: http://www.nationalmemo.com/psychoanalyzing-donald-trump/

Please stop sharing that tripe. The author himself admits it's horribly unethical and overwhelmingly likely to be entirely wrong in the very first paragraph, but somehow justifies his continued speculation because a random group of peers (as if these peers being located within the grounds of Yale for a conference gives them some sort of authority) decided it was okay this one time because they don't like the subject…

Not only that, they are basically turning this whole mental health thing into a farce.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#346

Post by foxfaction »

macspoofing wrote: post #139
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.

That's a good point. It's trivial for almost any company to accommodate a 'mental health' sick day here or there - in fact nobody cares what you take a sick day for. So the situation in the blog post is a bit contrived and the boss pats himself a bit too much on the back for his response. I would think true mental health accommodation would involve long periods of leave, or limited hours, or limited days (e.g. 3 day…

In the Netherlands, it's a legal requirement that businesses must accommodate any employee requests for reduced hours, at proportionally reduced pay.

The average person in the Netherlands works 25 hours a week, yet they still have a higher GDP per capita. Not per hour, just overall. They work less, yet generate more.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#347

Post by nf05papsjfVbc »

Jaruzel wrote: post #293
nf05papsjfVbc wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might I ask if the using the word 'crazy' at the end was a conscious choice? I do not wish to pry or pose a rhetorical question. I'm curious only because from the rest of the email you seem to be speaking in a dispassionate manner about the situation but that bit stood out as being different. I could be way off the mark of course. I intend no disrespect or ill-will of any kind. I understand if you just say "None of y…

Nah, it's fine :) 'Crazy' is how I view myself. It helps me accept my broken brain, and more importantly, makes it easier to stay on the meds. Without the meds, I'm into serious depression and anxiety territory. It's no fun being there, so better to call myself Crazy. It is what it is. Also, I use self depreciating humour as defence mechanism. People I know personally don't like it when I call myself Crazy though, no…

Thank you for your openness and honesty.

Good luck!

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#348

Post by bluGill »

mythrwy wrote: post #344
vizeroth wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids make stupid and dangerous decisions because their brains aren't fully developed, they don't have the same sense of perspective that they will (hopefully) have as adults. Once upon a time, this was part of why we had a separate judicial system for them, too. Religion comes into play because the lobby against making birth control available to teenagers is also the lobby against abortion clinics (and any clinics th…

Religion _was_ the birth control for a long time. It appears to have stopped working sometime in the late 1960's though.

In the old days they used to say "First babies can arrive whenever they want, the second baby better take nine months". Which is to say they knew unmarried people would have sex, but any girl that got herself pregnant was expected to marry the father before the baby was born and stay married.

Religion never worked great, but it was all they had.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#349

Post by bluGill »

debaserab2 wrote: post #334
bluGill wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a kid at 16 will screw you up. Most people have a moral objection to screwing up their life like that, as well as the practical objection. Most religions of the world have some form of moral objection to sex outside of marriage, it can be easily argued that the moral objection comes form the practical issues. (most religions predates any form of effective birth control. Today you can argue that the moral is ob…

Yeah okay that doesn't exactly equate to lacking moral fortitude. Think you're projecting a bit there.

fair enough. I should have put moral fortitude in quotes.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#350

Post by macspoofing »

foxfaction wrote: post #346
macspoofing wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point. It's trivial for almost any company to accommodate a 'mental health' sick day here or there - in fact nobody cares what you take a sick day for. So the situation in the blog post is a bit contrived and the boss pats himself a bit too much on the back for his response. I would think true mental health accommodation would involve long periods of leave, or limited hours, or limited days (e.g. 3 day…

In the Netherlands, it's a legal requirement that businesses must accommodate any employee requests for reduced hours, at proportionally reduced pay. The average person in the Netherlands works 25 hours a week, yet they still have a higher GDP per capita. Not per hour, just overall. They work less, yet generate more.

Small point of contention. Netherlands have lower GDP per capita than USA.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PP...

Generally small and/or resource rich countries tend to have a high GDP per capita, so comparisons usually aren't very fair.

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