There are lots of lawyers in Chicago that would take your case.
Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
31–40 of 56 posts
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#32As a person who's suffered from depression, and experienced discrimination because of it, I'd like to encourage you to both sue the shit out of this asshole, and name the company publicly. Don't be ashamed of your depression, and don't let people like this continue to get away with abusing those who suffer from mental illness.
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If you're going to lawyer up, I'd delete this post. No need to invite counterclaims of defamation (not that they'd necessarily succeed, but no sense in poking the bear).
Contact an attorney and follow his/her advice.
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'd have a pretty hard time making the case that the OP was making his co-workers feel unsafe unless you had some concrete proof of a threat of violence or something along that lines. Not wanting to work with a depressed person is not a valid termination reason because of the categorization as a disability.
I agree with this analysis. You'd need concrete proof of threat. Otherwise, any employer facing an ADA claim based on mental illness could use the excuse "We're afraid he'll murder us all in a depressed rage" to win. Reading the post in question, I think the addiction issues are another possible cause of the employer's actions. Addiction can also be considered an actionable disability, but you have to be treating it…
This is assuming there was an employment relationship. Were you under an employment agreement or was this an independent contractor arrangement?
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#34Have you read "mans search for meaning"? That guy lived in a concentration camp, so you probably don't have it that bad... Hope you find something better than pills and/or paying a shrink for the rest of your life. I know you can.
Clinical depression is a physiological condition that produces irrational negative emotions that are largely unrelated to the sufferer's circumstances. Telling a clinically depressed person "buck up, things aren't that bad" is about as helpful as telling somebody with diabetes that "sugar is actually pretty tasty, you should just try it again and see if you like it." Those pills you so casually dismiss prevented me f…
- I went through clinical depression myself 10 years ago. I think the OP deserves a second opinion.
- I would tell someone with type 2 diabetes to stop taking drugs and instead stop eating the carbs (of course the politically correct pharmaceutical / govt response is to take drugs which only treat the symptoms - funny how financial interests work). Again, first hand experience with this.
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#35Everyone seems to love how much power they have with social media. Look at the ex-Mozilla CEO. He was bullied and forced to quit as a result of his beliefs. The flip-side is that business owners can also use this power against you. Be careful what you post on social media, it may come back to get you.
You mean Brendan Eich? He is not just the ex-Mozilla CEO, He also invented JavaScript.
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#36While you have my sympathies for what you are going through, it really comes off petty when you name your employer. In my experience, there are always two sides to each story. I won't even try to speculate why they might have let you go. If they were discriminating against you because of your depression, then there are legal protections that are provided for you. Naming and shaming your ex employers, does nothing but harm to your future prospects. Prospective Employers, if they hear about how quickly you publicly shamed/named your employer when you two did not see eye to eye, will be hesitant to hire you. In all honesty, I would not.
All We(HNers) have, is your side of the story, there is no defense from the company that let you go. There is very little upside to publicly naming the company, unless you do it in legal proceedings.
I'm not sure if its possible, but I'd highly recommend you deleting the comments where you named the company, or delete this post. It does nobody any good, especially you. Think about it, what did you gain from naming them. I was with you until I saw that you named the company. Again it comes off petty and childish.
You seem fairly young, since you mentioned your experience, so remember that professionalism goes a long way, and also that Life is not fair. Sometimes you'll get blamed for something you didn't do, other times you'll be fired for something shitty like this. Your job is to keep moving ahead all the time, and don't go down to the level of jerks and become a jerk yourself. Stand up for yourself, but don't talk behind other people's back. If they wronged you, then confront them, but give them a chance to defend themselves.
Good luck to you.
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#37While you have my sympathies for what you are going through, it really comes off petty when you name your employer. In my experience, there are always two sides to each story. I won't even try to speculate why they might have let you go. If they were discriminating against you because of your depression, then there are legal protections that are provided for you. Naming and shaming your ex employers, does nothing but…
Ok. How do I go about deleting comments? It seems I've missed the time to delete the comments.
I do agree with everything you've said though. I now wish I didn't mention the company but I guess it's too late to change that.
EDIT: I emailed hn@ycombinator.com about deleting the comments. Hopefully that helps.
EDIT 2: seems like the comments are gone.
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#38While you have my sympathies for what you are going through, it really comes off petty when you name your employer. In my experience, there are always two sides to each story. I won't even try to speculate why they might have let you go. If they were discriminating against you because of your depression, then there are legal protections that are provided for you. Naming and shaming your ex employers, does nothing but…
Wait, how is he going down to the level of jerks by pulicly naming and shaming a company? Why do you say that? I just don't understand your rationale. This sounds absurd. Could you elaborate maybe?
Yeah, for some future employers it may seem unprofessional, but I would not want to work for such employers.
On the contrary, I would recommend to consult a lawyer, sue them, write a blog about your case and a company, start a movement in the interests of depressed programmers and involve tech media in all of that. This will have both positive externalities and benefits for OP: more protection for depresssed programmers, less incentives for unethical companies to behave like that, traffic for the OP new blog and possibly several job opportunities.
OP, I consider naming and shaming unethical companies like this to be a preferred course of action if done strategically.
Yeah, sometimes, when organizations are locked into Nash equilibrium and any individual actor can't change rules of the game, in that case naming and shaming is unproductive.
Firing a person who has written about their depression? No excuse. Don't give them a chanche to protect themselves(WTF?!). Destroy the company. Help others like you.
EDIT OP, I see you deleted the comments with the name of the company. Please don't let it slide. Fight for yourself and for others who are suffering from depression and are being discriminated against.
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#39Let me recommend an audio book for you, "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle http://www.audible.com/pd/Religion-Spirituality/The-Power-of....
Re: Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
#40While you have my sympathies for what you are going through, it really comes off petty when you name your employer. In my experience, there are always two sides to each story. I won't even try to speculate why they might have let you go. If they were discriminating against you because of your depression, then there are legal protections that are provided for you. Naming and shaming your ex employers, does nothing but…
Wait, how is he going down to the level of jerks by pulicly naming and shaming a company? Why do you say that? I just don't understand your rationale. This sounds absurd. Could you elaborate maybe? Yeah, for some future employers it may seem unprofessional, but I would not want to work for such employers. On the contrary, I would recommend to consult a lawyer, sue them, write a blog about your case and a company, sta…
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