Background/Context: I live in England, UK. 25F.
Lemme start off by saying how much I love this community and everything it stands for.
Onto the main post. I currently work in the marketing department of a billion dollar US company, in their UK office. I've been here since May 2021 and for the first few months we were completely remote.
I was hoping we would stay remote like some other companies I have seen. However, as of last autumn, we're all being dragged back into the office as per our contract. I am contracted to be in the office 2 days per week. However, my commute is 3 hours each way – so on two days a week, I'm currently travelling for 6 hours a day. It's killing me.
I just got an ADHD diagnosis, and was told by the psychiatrist that I almost certainly have autism too (awaiting referral), so all of this travelling plus sitting in a corporate office all day is really damaging my mental and physical health.
I started on antidepressants 1.5 years ago, and they all but fixed my depression. But now I can feel myself spiralling again – I was sat at my desk yesterday having to force myself for hours to not cry. I'm miserable, my boss is being unreasonable with her requests of me (e.g. being a mind reader), and it's just overall sucking big balls for me.
I have a doctor's appointment booked for this Thursday, and I'm gonna ask to be signed off with stress. (I can take up to 6 months sick fully paid in my company).
I'm currently applying for other jobs – fully remote of course – and I would like to take the time off to decompress and focus on finding a new job that doesn't make me wanna sob or fall asleep all the time lmao.
However, would this impact my employment in the future? I've seen that sometimes new employers can ask old employers how much sick leave you have. This feels wrong imho, as surely someone being sick is a protected characteristic (aka discrimination). But on the flip side, I have done some research and have seen that this is rarely asked, nor is it typically an issue for future employers.
I just wanna be sure I'm making the right choice for myself. I had my mind set, but now I'm getting cold feet about it.
So what do you guys think?