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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

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.

xname2 9y ago
Is it possible to find a less demanding (also less payment) job? Would this help?
mistermann 9y ago
That said, I suspect in many cases for any given individual person, there very well likely may be "a" solution out there that would work for them, perhaps not as a "cure", but as a way to manage. The big problem is, in most places it is incredibly difficult to get in to see a mental health professional, but even worse than that, many of the successful approaches for managing mental health (spirituality & meditation, alternative nootropic supplements) are not conducive to traditional "scientific" study, and are even considered outright quackery by many (and many of them are by my reckoning, but then it depends how you look at it). To find such approaches, you have to do a lot of personal investigation, reading forums, talking to people, etc. My suspicion is that formal mental health practitioners would rather you came in for regular, recurring one hour sessions for years, rather than pointing you in this direction. But that may just be the cynic in me.
rnprince 9y ago
Does FMLA leave apply for cases like yours?
- thedaemon 9y ago
  From personal experience, it does not.
macspoofing 9y ago
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 work-weeks) or all of the above. Not many businesses are setup for that.
- foxfaction 9y ago
  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.
  - macspoofing 9y ago
    Small point of contention. Netherlands have lower GDP per capita than USA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita 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.

xname2 9y ago

Is it possible to find a less demanding (also less payment) job? Would this help?

mistermann 9y ago

That said, I suspect in many cases for any given individual person, there very well likely may be "a" solution out there that would work for them, perhaps not as a "cure", but as a way to manage. The big problem is, in most places it is incredibly difficult to get in to see a mental health professional, but even worse than that, many of the successful approaches for managing mental health (spirituality & meditation, alternative nootropic supplements) are not conducive to traditional "scientific" study, and are even considered outright quackery by many (and many of them are by my reckoning, but then it depends how you look at it). To find such approaches, you have to do a lot of personal investigation, reading forums, talking to people, etc. My suspicion is that formal mental health practitioners would rather you came in for regular, recurring one hour sessions for years, rather than pointing you in this direction. But that may just be the cynic in me.

rnprince 9y ago

Does FMLA leave apply for cases like yours?

thedaemon 9y ago
From personal experience, it does not.

macspoofing 9y ago

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 work-weeks) or all of the above. Not many businesses are setup for that.

foxfaction 9y ago
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.
- macspoofing 9y ago
  Small point of contention. Netherlands have lower GDP per capita than USA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita 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.