The Workplace Catch-22

Workplace accommodation for people with mental illnesses is a real Catch-22.

Say you have an accident and lose a leg. You need to heal, be fitted with a prosthesis, go through rehabilitation and learn to walk again. Perhaps you’ll learn to use a wheelchair. Eventually, you’ll return to work – probably be welcomed back – and receive accommodations.

No questions asked. Everyone will bend over backwards to ensure you transition well into your new life, help you adapt to your new way of doing things and adjust to your new challenges.

Say you’re applying for a job. If you’re well qualified and in a wheelchair, why shouldn’t you have as good a shot as anyone else at landing that job?

But what happens if you have a mental health issue? If you’re good at what you do, well educated and trained, what do you do?

Announce in a job interview that you’ve had some emotional problems and may need some accommodation from time to time? Try that, and you’ll probably be shown the door before you have a chance to whip out your resume.

All colleges and universities offer students with any number of physical, developmental and emotional issues accommodations, but that simply doesn’t happen in “the real world.”

That’s wrong. Unfair. Unjust. Discriminatory.

You rarely hear the thousands of success stories about people thriving with their mental health issues because people simply don’t talk about them. They hide them. Pray nothing happens. Live with their secrets in fear.

How many CEOs drink excessively? How many managers white knuckle their way through a workday and fall apart at night?

It’s easier to hide a mental health issue than a prosthetic leg or a wheelchair, but no less important to ensure that talented, well-educated, creative people be given equal opportunities to contribute to society in any way they can. That means in the workplace.

This is the great Catch-22 employees must face.

You can’t receive appropriate accommodation unless your employer knows how you need to be accommodated. And how will they know if you don't tell them?

This is a human rights issue.

You should be able to be honest about a mental health issue without fear of never being hired. Or worse, being fired. And employers should be able to look beyond it. There are so many people with gambling, drinking and drug abuse problems who slip through the cracks because these addictions – and they are serious, dangerous mental health issues – are for some reason considered “acceptable.”

Why should a mood disorder, an anxiety problem or any mental illness that’s well controlled be less acceptable?

It's wrong. Unfair. Unjust. Discriminatory.

Someone who’s worked hard to recover and maximize their health – physical and mental – is a better bet in the workplace. Better equipped to cope, communicate, listen, empathize, work hard and be a great team player. If given a chance, loyal to the end.

Try telling that to an employer. Most of them see only potential problems. Never potential successes. The Toronto Sun hired me, knowing I had a mental illness, because they saw my potential and wanted to give me a chance. Now Seneca College has done the same thing.

I didn’t hide anything. Why should you have to if you’re applying for a job? Be honest and up front. Explain what you need to help you do the best job you can do. A good employer welcomes such information.

There is no question that a healthy workplace - mentally and physically - is a more profitable workplace.

Nobody's perfect. We’re all vulnerable. Life isn't a linear path. Things happen. There are bumps along the road. We all have problems, and we all deserve a chance to prove ourselves. To work hard and succeed.

Emotional and physical health issues should be treated equally in the workplace. Everywhere.

How can we make this happen? By opening our minds. Overcoming our own fears and ignorance. Educating ourselves. Throwing out the old stereotypes and myths about mental illnesses – and treating people as individuals. As human beings. With enormous potential.

And beautiful minds.

Comments

[Sonia]

Hello Sandy,

My absence was due to rebuilding my laptop for the new term. It is so good to see one of my favourite novels (and idea) in your blog!!! Catch-22 is an accurate description of what I have faced in the last year.

Keep up the insight, encouragement, and kindness!

[Dominique]

Sure it's illegal to discriminate. But quite obviously, employers will not come out and tell you that they don't want to hire you because of your mental illness. They'll use anything else to justify their decision. Before all this sensitization started happening, I had employers call me a nutjob (translation of the French "une maudite folle", that was courtesy of my boss at tfo, the French version of TVO); and I've had other employers come right out and question my ability to take on full-time hours (that was at Tandemar). Now that they are being informed this is unacceptable, they just don't tell you what they're thinking. Period. I remember I was the only other person to get laid off at this one company, because apparently they were downsizing. I was on night shift. They tried to transfer afternoon-shift workers to my position and those people didn't want to work nights (I did, and had no sleep problems like the others) so they quit. The company advertised on Monster.ca for my position. They never called me back. I phoned the Ministry of Labour and was told the company could do whatever it wanted. There was nothing to stop them. Of course they never said anything about my illness (which I had disclosed, and taken medical leave to treat) but, given the problems they had replacing me, it doesn't look fair. They gave me a recommendation afterward so it looks like there was no issue with my competence, and I was laid off, not fired for cause.

[Sandy Naiman]

Thanks for your candour and honesty, Dominique.

I am disgusted by the way you have been treated.

As far as I'm concerned discrimination and prejudice colour our thinking, societally. We have to help change that. The Canadian Medical Association Health Report Card on Mental Health only reinforced the general ignorance and fears that abound around mental illnesses. Those fears and ignorance can be addressed. ""Stigma" can't be addressed. No one takes responsibility for "stigma." But ignorance? Fear? Prejudice? Discrimination? People have to take responsibility for their own uninformed thinking. They can become informed. They can change their minds.

Ignorance and fear leads to prejudice and discrimination and the illegal and unjust treatment of people with mental health issues. When are we going to change our thinking? Take responsibility for our fears and ignorance? And then help educate others? Will a Mental Health Commission do it? I don't know. But I do know that we can stand up and be counted? You have. We need to speak out. We need more people, working in mainstream careers, successful professionals, declaring themselves. If they do excellent work, what do they have to fear? Being fired? There are so many of us. We're no different than millions of people with countless problems. But the psychiatric labels do us in because we internalize them and feel inferior. And because of the centuries of baggage they carry, they weigh us down.

We silence ourselves because of the history of madness and the way we have been treated. But that's not going to continue forever. There is mental health recovery. It's going to change the way people view us and the way we feel about ourselves. And it's going to change the workplace.

We can engineer that change. The question is when.

Don't you think we should try to do something about it?Speak out. Tell our stories. Not just to people with our issues, not just preaching to the converted, but to people who've never really thought about mental illnesses or mental wellness before. People in denial. People in powerful positions.

Mental health issues play no favourites.

Thanks for commenting.

[Anon]

I'm in my late 20's and I have gaps in my resume due to bouts of "mental illness" I was told point blank by a psychiatrist when I was away on disability from my last job to never hint that my absence was due to mental illness. Unfortunately employers will find a way to avoid hiring someone with these challenges or it will ensure you will never be promoted at your current position if it doesn't immediately raise questions about competency. What's needed is public awareness such as we have seen for people with physical disabilities.

[Sonia]

Dear Anon,

It is sad that we need to account for every minute of our time in our CVs, and that gaps in time (of which I am a proud owner) need explanation.

One way I found around the indelicate questions was to state categorically that "personal time" was quite suitable thank you very much!

I am saddened to hear in the 21st century that this (gaps in CVs) is a serious concern for your generation (20 something), considering the advances in mental health. Sadly, attitudes have not progressed in step. Please remember, there are some in society who support you in your struggle.

[Evee]

I have always dealt with depression and always hid it from my employers. Sadly the one time I decided to disclose the information I was quickly let go.

I was working as a secretary for a Toronto Hospital when I began to have problems with 2 practice nurses. I started to have anxiety attacks and that lead to depression. I finally told my manager and was quickly forced into short term disability with promise of another job when it ended. 3 months later they told me that they couldn't accommodate me and gave me 6 weeks compensation and cut me loose.

I had been fine until the trouble with the nurses and it had been proven that they were difficult to work with, instead of helping me my manager, a nurse herself, told me I should get a job working at Tim Hortons and shuffled me out the door. This was a devastating blow to my self esteem. Since then I have had 2 more jobs working in the medical field and have been successful but I will never again trust anyone with my medical information.

Thank you for bringing this workplace discrimination into the light.

[Anon]

Hi Sandy,

While I appreciate this article and your own story, you help no one by titling this section "Coming Out Crazy" - a tag I find offensive in the extreme. In no way does such a stance lessen fear or avoidance. Worse, it implies that everyone, even those with occasional attacks of anxiety or depression, is somehow in the same boat as an individual with paranoid delusions and a history of bizarre behaviour. It's not the case.

[Sandy Naiman]

In 1998, I was asked to write a major first person account for Chatelaine Magazine about my life with my mental illnesses – I've had serious diagnoses and I've been hospitalized numerous times for severe psychosis, including delusions and what might be considered "bizarre behaviour."

The headline of that story was "Coming Out Crazy." I love it. I helped write it. It says it all for me.

Since then, I have used that title for most of my speeches.

When I was invited to blog here, I decided it was the best title for this blog. The fact that it inspires such strong feelings in you, proves my point.

People have to come out and educate those around them, demonstrate that they are fine. Like you!

There are ways of recovering from paranoid delusions and histories of what you call "bizarre behaviour." People do recover. They become healthy and well. And they stay mentally healthy and well.

But if you are afraid of facing your mental health issues, admitting they exist and finding the help you need, you will have a hard time recovering.

Anyone is capable of bizarre behaviours. Sleep deprivation will do it to ANYONE.

We will have to agree to disagree on the title of my blog. I think the best way, in fact, the only to change the perceptions of our society about madness, today, is by "Coming Out Crazy."

Sadly, there are some people working in the health professions who are desperately in need of education and enlightenment. I am sorry you lost your job because of one of them. Too many health professionals are notoriously ignorant and prejudiced against those with whom they work. It is a sad commentary on our society, but fears of mental illnesses or madness run very deep.

The only way to heal our society is to face those fears and learn about them, educate ourselves and others.

You have to "come out" to do that!

Take care and thanks for writing.

[Dominique Millette]

Well, the difficulties I've experienced which I mentioned above have discouraged me completely. My psychiatrist has told me to apply for disability because it doesn't look like I can stay in the workplace. One way or the other I will end up on welfare.

[Sue DeNime]

How ironic that Seneca is opening up to those with mental health issues. About 10 years ago, I worked in a high-tech firm, during which, I was formally diagnosed with clinical depression. Then I was assigned to a new boss (who had been hired on the basis of his experience teaching in the I.T. program at Seneca, not on the basis of any actual interpersonal or management skills). He was a classic Type-A, just get it done, no excuses person, with a "TCB" coffee mug to emphasize the fact.

Under him, my life was hell. He'd suddenly call me into a meeting with, "Let's have a chat". He belittled me. He was confrontational. He made no secret that he thought I was just an incompetent slacker, rather than someone with a genuine illness. On top of all this, my mother was battling breast cancer, followed by needing an emergency triple-bypass. When I told him this, he just said, "Oh, she'll be fine."

Finally, he wrote a completely false quarterly review that included this little gem: "Basic logical concepts appear to be beyond her limited capabilties (sic)", and when he gave me this review, he also informed me I was being terminated, and I was frog-marched out of the building.

The irony is that, at the same time, another employee was battling cancer, and she was given every sort of concession she needed.

A few days after my termination, I went for a complete, in-depth (and very expensive, since I had to pay for it myself) psychological assessment, which confirmed that I was definitely clinically depressed, and that, even operating under the severe trauma I'd experienced, my I.Q. was in the 93rd percentile. So, clearly, his comment about "basic logical concepts" was completely false and downright demeaning.

Armed with this information, and copies of everything in my personnel file, I filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. This complaint dragged out for 3 years, during which, the company sent a lawyer from McCarthy's (known for its bullying tactics) to meet with me at the Commission's fact-finding session. This session accomplished nothing, except to establish that the company & my former boss had lied in their reply, when they stated that I had never told them of my illness. In fact, I had informed them several times, verbally and in writing, with supporting documents from my doctor and psychiatrist.

Finally, after the company had been sold and was just tying up loose ends, they settled with me for 10 times the insulting amount they'd originally offered. But by then, that amount didn't even cover all the bills for my medications and my sessions with a psychologist.

I've since found out that, because of the tactics of that boss, the company faced many Human Rights and wrongful dismissal actions from other employees who'd been dismissed based on false reviews.

I did eventually have the last laugh, though. Last year, I found out that my odious former boss had died of a massive heart attack, at the age of 50. I may be living with depression for the rest of my life, but I'm still here, and he's just dust in the ground. If I knew where he was buried, I'd personally "water" that ground.

[Sonia]

Hello Sandy, and Sue,

I am angry to hear that you were frog marched out of your place of employment. I know how de-humanising that is. Other than "top security" facilities, there is no reason for this practice.

As for feelings of vindication: enjoy them with a grain of salt. There is an adage, "be careful what you wish for, you might just get it!"

I am happy for you that you stood up for your position with the Human Rights Commission, and had the strength (and money) to establish documentation. That takes courage. By themselves, these two actions are powerful. Congratulations.