Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

I actually hadn't really thought about the topic of mental health and careers until this summer. I'm getting closer to graduation and, because I've been working remotely for the past 5-ish years, I'm starting to get a bit worried about the prospect of being expected to show up on time 5 days a week for work every week. You see, the thing with working from home is that if you have a bad day, you can legit just do nothing. I mean, I might have to answer a few emails here and there, but I can do that from my phone while lying in bed (and I do that frequently).

It's not like if I'm super depressed or anxious one day, I can just lay down on the floor in the middle of the office and do my work from my phone. I'm guessing that's not a socially acceptable workplace tactic?

I've been interning this summer though, so it has crossed my mind more and more. The place I'm interning is a mental health nonprofit though and I'd say roughly 75% of the people working there have diagnoses of their own. I mean, there's a reason people become passionate about mental health nonprofit work. I'd say the majority of the people who don't have a mental illness of their own are involved because someone they care about has or had a mental illness. A lot of my coworkers have said, "Well, my mom was bipolar" or "My dad committed suicide" or whatever.

Basically, it's completely reasonable and almost expected at my internship for people to need mental health days.

In fact, I've taken entire weeks this summer where I'm like, "I just can't work. I can't do anything." And my boss is totally okay with that. Probably more okay with it because, when I do come out of my slump, I get an epic amount of work done with a few days before I crash again. It is kind of awkward though, even with the organization being very stigma-free and all about mental healthcare. My boss has kind of, like, vaguely suggested that I use some of our own services because I so obviously need mental health help. It's like, "soooo, you know we have this free service... if you're ever interested..."

I think mental health issues should be openly discussed the way a physical health issue might be. Like, if someone has a chronic illness, they might need a few days break or they might need certain accommodations. I don't see why mental health issues should be any different. However, I don't think society is quite there yet. Depending on the work environment, I can 100% see an employer finding a reason to get rid of an employee if they found out about a mental illness. Obviously they wouldn't say that WHY you're being let go, but, we all know.

As far as when it's a good idea and when it's not a good idea... I guess it just depends on the company. If a company is very forward-thinking and mental health is something they're open about, I think it's a good idea to let your employer know. I think it's better for an employer to know what's going on with you through honest communication rather than thinking that you're just being lazy or don't care. But if mental health is never brought up and the company doesn't emphasize it at all, I personally probably wouldn't bring it up because there is still a pretty big stigma.

Best,
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