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My old company told people to be embarrassed of time off for mental illness

Basically what it says above. I used to work for what was basically failing/failed company and was being propped up by the government of my country (due to being a government contractor in a very niche market). We had what could only be described as a mental health epidemic. The company was pushing everyone for silly (and very unrealistic) goal to try and “turn it around”. This lead to at one point 50% of middle managers in the company being signed off by their doctor for various mental health issues (we actually have employment protections though and a company can't legally shitcan you for sickness absence that lasts less than a year). In upper management's desperation they got some management consultants, from America for some reason. We had a massive “town hall” meeting where one of these consultants stood up and legit said: “the level of mental health absence is…


Basically what it says above.

I used to work for what was basically failing/failed company and was being propped up by the government of my country (due to being a government contractor in a very niche market).

We had what could only be described as a mental health epidemic. The company was pushing everyone for silly (and very unrealistic) goal to try and “turn it around”. This lead to at one point 50% of middle managers in the company being signed off by their doctor for various mental health issues (we actually have employment protections though and a company can't legally shitcan you for sickness absence that lasts less than a year).

In upper management's desperation they got some management consultants, from America for some reason. We had a massive “town hall” meeting where one of these consultants stood up and legit said: “the level of mental health absence is unacceptable, honestly I would be modified to tell my coworkers I couldn't hack it like that. It's just embarrassing”.

The Q&A session got downright hostile and ended with the consultant walking out midway through. As they walked through the door someone said loudly “guess they couldn't hack it”.

The company's problems spiralled from there with lots of people leaving, many more going off with stress, depression and anxiety (on doctor's say so). I left shortly after. About 18 months after I left the government had to step in and privatise them, booted the entire executive. Looking at the glass door reviews since it doesn't look like working conditions or benefits improved much though.

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