I once had my employer perform a wellness check when I was having a mental health episode.
I was working remotely, but my mental health was in the toilet. I had a candid conversation with my supervisor where I told him I needed some time off because I had been feeling suicidal. He was an absolute bro, told me I was doing a good job, and that I earned some time off. He agreed that our conditions and the demands from management were absurd. He tells me to just take some time, and he’ll clear the way with HR.
Well, I’m logging off my computer when I get a call from his boss. He’s asking why I’m suddenly taking some time off. I tell him that I haven’t been feeling well, but he keeps badgering me for a specific reason. I tell him that I’m very vulnerable and don’t want to disclose a reason. That’s between me and my doctor.
Well he keeps pressing and he tells me that, “sharing our vulnerabilities is what fosters trust.” So I’m like fine, you really want to know, this job and your management style are making me suicidal.
Tone immediately shifts. He’s going into full damage control cover-your-ass mode. He tells me that I should consider a different career if I’m not up to the task. I’m already having like the worst day of my life (so far) and I start to have a panic attack.
I tell him you know what, it’s not his business and I’m going to call my doctor. Before I can get on the phone with my doctor, HR is calling me. They tell me they have to get hold of my emergency contact to make sure I’m not currently killing myself. I tell them my emergency contact is out of town (unrelated), so they say they have to call the police. I ask her not to, there’s no risk to myself and things have been taken out of context. HR insists that it’s company policy.
So while I’m hyperventilating because my boss pressed me for more details than I was comfortable sharing about my health, they sent a man with a gun to my house to check on me.
I understand that the company is protecting its liability or whatever. But I really felt that my rights had been violated somehow. The police are not suitable to intervene in a mental health episode. I had a new fear that I wouldn’t be able to calm down when the police arrived and I’d end up shot or something.
TLDR - I know this post is fake, but companies really do feel like they own their employees. A wellness check from your employer is absolutely bullshit, but that won’t stop them from trying.
I learned at a real young age to never tell anyone you feel suicidal unless you want to end up “involuntarily committed”. Won’t even bring up my depression unless I’m around a real friend.
Same.
Perfect solution to feeling like life has no worth except making profits for billionaires is obviously to forcibly lock them up in a hospital for a week and stick them with a $20k bill. That’ll fix all that depression. /s
It’s not just a hospital too by the way. It was a murder short of feeling like I was in the asylum from outlast. Wailing, fighting, screaming and all other sorts of antisocial behavior, with the staff barely in control. At the least that was how it felt and being committed to that place beyond just preventing my possible suicide in the short term became a lasting traumatic experience.
I have a similar experience that I wrote about on my blog. I would link it, but I’m not wanting to connect those two online identities. Essentially, I wasn’t even at risk of suicide, but my crazy psychiatrist thought he knew better then me and my parents. Mental hospitals are absolutely dehumanizing. They are basically prisons for those who haven’t committed any crimes. There are strip searches just like prisons. You are not allowed any outside things (stuffed animals, normal clothes, etc). Maybe prisons should start using sedatives for torture as well. Maybe I should patent the idea and make bank.
Also to make things worse: those suffering mental health issues are very vulnerable and easy to abuse in these facilities
So while I’m hyperventilating because my boss pressed me for more details than I was comfortable sharing about my health, they sent a man with a gun to my house to check on me.
I know I shouldn’t have laughed but the way this story unfolded was hilarious.
Life gets a lot easier when you realize you don’t have to answer questions that you don’t want to, and “No” is a complete sentence. Not berating you, just letting you know that you didn’t have to fall for their pressure tactics. Just keep not answering their questions until they give up.
I hope you’re doing better these days.
FYI, to compare “what it could be”. Union rules here (country in scandinavia) forbid the employers to ask what is wrong, when employees call in sick. They can, after some time, if the employee still is sick, ask for a doctor to verify that the employee is indeed unable to come to work. The doctor though can only write a letter confirming (if that is the case) that indeed this employee is unable to attend work due to medical issues. No description is needed or required, not even an estimate of when they will be ok again.
Also, you get full sick pay while sick, medical care is free, and if the employer asks for a doctor confirmation, they are will have to pay for it (current price aprox €100)
Please tell me this is a joke. I legitimately don’t know if it is or isn’t.
It is a joke, lol
This guy makes these terrible concepts for apps and stuff:
Not gona lie, I do like the speed limit leaderboard. Though I would see people trying to get the “high score” on something like this.
“Go for the high score” is definitely a thought that crosses my mind every time I see one of those speed radar things the police sometimes put on the side of the road that flashes your speed at you. Kinda feel like those things actually encourage unsafe driving because of people like me with impulse control issues.
Those with impulse control issues that would cause them to drive recklessly “for the memes” shouldn’t have a license
Are you always this fun when someone says something facetious around you? Go pop a Prozac. They worked wonders for me.
Do you take things a bit too seriously on the Internet sometimes? Do drugs!
Great stance you have on mental illness there.
This was a huge issue with the automated speed signs around where I live. They had to take them down because of it and reprogram them to stop showing the speed and instead flash the speed limit when people were speeding.
this is funny and reminds me that when you call in sick
just say you are calling in sick, don’t give any reasons. Fuck them they don’t need to know why
sometimes mental health days where you just chill and do shit you want to do is a perfectly good sick day
I’m at home with ruptured vaginal cyst. Dare you to try this.
Are there even women on Lemmy?
fuck off back to 2010 reddit
Well im a women and im on Lemmy, so yes
I guess the joke went over everyone’s head.
Shrug
Your sexist joke didn’t go over anyone’s head.
Yes. It’s very sexist. I hate the sexes
ok troll
I mean I was just making a joke about other people making the same joke and being serious. So if you think I’m a “troll” trying to intentionally harm you, it went over your head.
