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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

#301

Post by LambdaComplex »

gtirloni wrote: post #268
asdfologist wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the work culture is infuriating, why do you love working there?

I have friends and family working in Japan and requiring a stamped slip for metro delay (not sure if it's still stamped or just printed) is just a cultural thing everywhere, or so I'm told. That kind of tradition means a lot more to Japan society than it does for some Western countries, I suppose. You can search for articles on "Japanese corporate bureaucracy" for different perspectives.

And appeal to tradition is a logical fallacy

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#302

Post by komali2 »

asdfologist wrote: post #230
komali2 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Culture can matter a great deal as well. In my experience working in Japan and Taiwan, everyone is considered an immature child that must be babysat minute by minute. My go-to story: Friend in Japan's train route was significantly delayed by a suicide. Rather than sit in the train station for ~2 hours waiting for cleanup, he leaves, gets on his motorcycle, and rides to work. Shows up 30 minutes late, but his pay is d…

If the work culture is infuriating, why do you love working there?

Because Japan is fun and the food is good.

Also Japan is just about the most photographical country I've ever been to.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#303

Post by wccrawford »

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…

Every company I've worked for has required a doctor's note for 3 or more consecutive days of sick leave.

It means that I cannot simply take care of myself, but that I have to go to a doctor and have them tell me that I'm sick and to do the things that I'd have done anyhow, like get plenty of rest and take some Nyquil at night.

The end result is that I almost never take 3 sick days in a row, even if I'm really sick. I end up coming to work, getting others sick, and getting nothing done. (Or worse, doing damage that I later have to repair before I can get work done.)

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#304

Post by wccrawford »

sobani wrote: post #260
sbaoufbasfub wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sick days are generally a good idea as they encourage people that are sick not to come in, thus helping stem epidemics. If they're regular time off, people come in sick to save them up. You might try to make a distinction between contagious and non-contagious diseases, but it'd probably be unwise as often people don't know if they are contagious or not, and anyway encouraging healing isn't a terrible idea eve…

As someone from Holland I read the comment from malnourish in the opposite way. Why limit the amount of days your allowed to be sick? What happens if you are sick for more days than what your contract allows? I would think that a finite amount of sick days will have the opposite effect of what you are describing. People will come to work even when they're sick, just in case they get even more sick later in the year.…

> What happens if you are sick for more days than what your contract allows?

They threaten to fire you for taking too much sick time, and they don't pay you for the additional days. They complain that you aren't reliable enough and that they need someone who is reliable.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#305

Post by dragonwriter »

sobani wrote: post #260
sbaoufbasfub wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sick days are generally a good idea as they encourage people that are sick not to come in, thus helping stem epidemics. If they're regular time off, people come in sick to save them up. You might try to make a distinction between contagious and non-contagious diseases, but it'd probably be unwise as often people don't know if they are contagious or not, and anyway encouraging healing isn't a terrible idea eve…

As someone from Holland I read the comment from malnourish in the opposite way. Why limit the amount of days your allowed to be sick? What happens if you are sick for more days than what your contract allows? I would think that a finite amount of sick days will have the opposite effect of what you are describing. People will come to work even when they're sick, just in case they get even more sick later in the year.…

> Why limit the amount of days your allowed to be sick?

The number of days you are allowed to be sick is not limited; the number of days of paid leave to deal with being sick is limited.

> What happens if you are sick for more days than what your contract allows?

Depending on the nature of the illness and other factors, you may be eligible for unpaid (by the employer), job-protected leave under FMLA or similar state laws, and may be eligible for disability payments during that leave under state law. The employer may, even if that law does not apply, extend paid or unpaid leave beyond what it is committed to in your contract, but is under no obligation to do so.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#306

Post by wccrawford »

cgoodmac wrote: post #180

What do people do when they take a couple days off for mental health? I love the idea, but have no idea what I'd do.

Find something that lets you relax and de-stress.

For me, it's video games. A good video game relaxes me like nothing else. Of course, that depends on there being a good video game that I haven't already played out.

Books can also do it for me, to a lesser extent. I also have other hobbies, mostly involving creating things like papercraft or models, that will help de-stress me.

The worst is when I spend too much time playing games and start to feel guilty about not doing other things. It's a downward spiral because the thing that relaxes me is now causing me additional stress.

The real solution is, of course, to find the real stress and reduce it directly. That's not always possible, but there's usually something that can be done.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#307

Post by tptacek »

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?

Respectfully, I'm not sure you fully understand these issues that you seem to have a very strong opinion about.

Teenagers around the US do not as a rule have convenient access to contraceptive pills. That's because the FDA refuses to approve them for OTC sale, despite their safety relative to many other OTC meds. The stated reason for refusing OTC sales is that allowing them would prevent women from seeing their doctors for other medical issues (this is also the reason you can't buy extremely useful and safe meds like Ondansetron OTC). I feel like I'm on firm ground when I add that this is unlikely to be the only reason you can't buy OTC contraceptive pills.

Meanwhile, about half of US states require parental consent for most minors before doctors can issue prescriptions for birth control.

As a fun additional wrinkle, churches, and in particular the Catholic church, run some of the largest hospital and health chains in US metro areas. Church-run hospitals routinely refuse to provide access to contraceptive services. In Chicago, the Loyola health system --- an otherwise well-regarded health services chain! --- won't prescribe contraceptive pills to adults even for non-contraceptive reproductive health purposes!

I don't think we need to spend too much time talking about Planned Parenthood clinics; the issues there are obvious to anyone familiar with the state of reproductive health in the US.

So, no, I don't think it's reasonable to argue that any teenaged girl in the US should be expected to be fully armed with all the tools of modern contraception.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#308

Post by justinjlynn »

tptacek wrote: post #307
exclusiv wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Respectfully, I'm not sure you fully understand these issues that you seem to have a very strong opinion about. Teenagers around the US do not as a rule have convenient access to contraceptive pills. That's because the FDA refuses to approve them for OTC sale, despite their safety relative to many other OTC meds. The stated reason for refusing OTC sales is that allowing them would prevent women from seeing their doct…

The lack of access to chemical birth control is a major issue, I agree. However, to the best of my knowledge, condoms are still fairly universally available to members of both sexes - which, while not ideal for a number of reasons, are certainly more effective in preventing the transmission of STIs as well as being effective in preventing unwanted pregnancy. Perhaps that might be a more charitable interpretation of the grandparent post, even if it's clearly not correct on the whole.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#309

Post by curun1r »

pdeuchler wrote: post #194
curun1r wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right that there's a lot more that goes into a clinical diagnosis of a psychological issue. It's important in that setting because it informs the likely treatment and it's very important to use all the information at your disposal to arrive at the most complete diagnosis. But that doesn't mean that it's not valuable to use incomplete information to speculate on a diagnosis in other settings. Histori…

>> 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 the level of respect and reading comprehension of the average discussion participant here is dropping pretty quickly.

Re: Mental health is still an issue in the workplace

#310

Post by [deleted] »

debaserab2 wrote: post #299
bluGill wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more than sex involved, but that was the biggest factor - at least in my experience which could well be different from typical. I carefully avoided passing a moral judgement on their acts. However the fact is sex at 16 immediately jumps into moral issues (not just Christian - most world religions encourage marriage). I did my best those to focus on the fact that as a result of that choice they have eliminate…

In what way does sex at 16 immediately jump into moral issues exactly? I don't buy for a second that being sexually active as a teenager somehow equates to lack of moral fortitude. There's plenty of teenagers that are aware of birth control and use it appropriately. Do they lack moral fortitude, too?

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