Woman Requests Time Off For Mental Health And Her Boss' Response Is Everything We Want To Hear
It's a shame that we are not picking up conversations that address mental illness - problems that affect our emotional, psychological, and social well-being.
But Madalyn Parker is just the luckier one from the lot. She recently sent a mail to her boss, asking for a time off because she needed to take care of her mental health, and his response moved her.
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Parker works for live chat software engineering company Olark and has been extremely vocal about her battle with mental illness.
When the CEO responds to your out of the office email about taking sick leave for mental health and reaffirms your decision. ? pic.twitter.com/6BvJVCJJFq
¡ª madalyn (@madalynrose) June 30, 2017
Owing to which, recently she found herself in need of some time off and she sent this to her team and her boss.
In his response, Olark CEO Ben Congleton and Madalyn's boss wrote an email that brought a wave of praises.
Almost 9.5 thousand people have resonated with her situation and praised her boss over his genuine concern and pleasing reply.
1.
I agree. I have been trying to figure out how to make a living without breaking myself mentally. I now have a service animal. pic.twitter.com/UKsvM6BENX
¡ª Janie Clayton (@RedQueenCoder) July 1, 2017
2.
Agreed. "I want to go hang out with family" and "I need to separate from stressors" are quite different. I want my co to be like yours.
¡ª Matt Olson (@carnivorous8008) July 1, 2017
3.
I also agree. You wouldn¡®t take holiday leave because you¡®ve got flu. Mental Health is just as serious and real as Physical Health
¡ª Josh Hancock (@josh_the_tech) July 11, 2017
Sadly, not everyone is happy with this gesture.
But *vacations* are for mental health too. So then really what's difference btwn sick leave & vacation leave? Could be just 1 leave policy
¡ª Andrew Cohen (@acohenNY) July 1, 2017
Mental illness can be as fatal and serious as any other disease, sometimes even more threatening. Not only do we need to make amends in our policies to comfort employees, but we also need to start a conversation about it.
