Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Mental health day is effective for keeping work?

Mental health in work place is one of the topics today. Also at the conference I attended recently at Prague, several speakers referred to this issue.


In this article below, it is recommended to take a "mental-health day." The author considers it problematic that employees hesitate to talk about their mental health issues at most workplaces.

I agree with this point of view. Despite its magnitude, mental health is hardly concerned by both employees and employers.

International Business Times: Can you take a mental health day at work?

However, the issue is not so simple. First, the benefit of one day for maintaining your mental health is limited. If you feel depressed or too anxious because of excessive work stress, resting for at least a couple of weeks is required to recover. Instead, one day is enough to prevent a breakdown when you keep your body and mind functional. However, in this case, you need not tell your boss about it in advance. Apply for a paid holiday, simply.

Second, mental health problem will be a reason for dismissing. It is not only an issue of discrimination for disabled people. Every employer wants to hire employees with high performance for low cost. Mental health problems hinder the performance, even if it is not deemed as a medical disease. Pleasant, tender, and energetic persons are likely to get a job. In contrast, persons who dislike people and cannot deal with others have difficult to be hired. Talking about your mental health at a workplace always has a risk for notifying your employer about your disadvantageous elements. This imbalance cannot be solved by legislation for banning discrimination.

In my experience, patients who have some people knowing his or her mental disorders are likely to maintain their job than those who have to conceal their medical status. But it seems not because the boss takes care of the employee. Rather, employees who feel safe to open their medical status tend to talk about it.

Treatment of mental health issues at workplace level should be much more focused. But there is even a need for developing a standard care.

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