This Boss Gave The Best Response When His Lady Employee Requested Time Off To Focus On Her Mental Health

Mental illness is an alarming issue in the present era and hasn’t yet received its fair share of importance. Unfortunately, a lot of people still don’t recognize it as relevant as physical illnesses, which further makes it difficult for those suffering from it hesitant to speak.

Being vocal about our mental health can sometimes be very difficult in workplace, where everybody is under pressure of working long hours and be contactable 24/7. Employees generally take time off sick when their physical health is suffering, but would they do the same if, their stress levels were busting, or anxiety is out of control?

Madalyn Parker, an engineer and web developer at Olark Live Chat, did exactly this when she recognized she required some R&R for the sake of her mental health – and her boss’s response to her email about it couldn’t have been better.

Madalyn tweeted this email conversation with his boss and it went viral promptly, racking up nearly 10,000 retweets and more than 33k ‘likes’ – signifying that the exchange struck a chord with a lot of people.

After watching the huge response, Ben further elaborated, saying: “I had no idea my response would become so visible — the reactions revealed that my stance on mental health in the workplace is unconventional, to say the least.”

Unfortunately, he’s perhaps correct on that point too. But optimistically, actions like his – and Madalyn’s – will help people in acknowledging the importance of mental health and breaking down the stigma.  After all, just like physical we all have mental health too and according to statics, 1 in 4 of us experience mental illness each year.

For a lot of us, the workplace is where we spend most of our day, and so it’s to be expected that our work lives and health needs cross over –however, they are mental or physical, we all need to recognize and take care of them.