Just want to preface this and say I’m not in the US.
So I started a job around 8 weeks ago. Left my previous role of 6 years and took a big step up and a 40% pay rise. I’d gone from a small domestic company to a more global company.
The people in this new company were nice. Mainly WFH. Things went well for the first 4-6 weeks. Got good feedback from my manager. The last two weeks however were not great. I started to have more client interaction and got some things wrong. Mainly to do with my technical knowledge. It really knocked my self confidence, which led to more mistakes.
The past week in particular were bad. I think I’ve slept 5 hours total in the past two nights due to being unable to switch off from work. I noticed my mind falling into an abyss of negative thoughts. I literally didn’t know how I was going to get through the day.
So this morning I knew I needed some help. Got to see a doctor who diagnosed me with moderate depression and anxiety. Prescribed me some medication and recommended I get some therapy.
My manager knew I was struggling, even prior to my diagnosis and said he was a big advocate of mental health. So I told him about my diagnosis and that I needed to collect a prescription on my lunch.
3pm rolls around and I get a message inviting me to a meeting on Teams. Join and my manager asks how I am etc. Then a HR person joins and I know exactly where this conversation is going. I’m fired. His exact words are still churning around in my head.
I’m not interested in pursuing any type of legal thing. I was in a probationary period so I think that I could get fired for any reason at any time.
I’ve also spoken to my former boss from the company I worked at for six years. Not only can I have my job back, he’s also gonna fight to have me reinstated rather than be a new hire so I keep my old benefits. He’s a real MVP that has his teams back. I’m gonna take a month off just to get my head in a better place.
I still feel like a giant failure right now though. I thought I’d have felt more relieved.
Moral of the story: No job is worth your mental health. Don’t believe managers and corporations when they say they are an advocate for mental health. If you do need to disclose a mental health issue then I recommend you do it in writing with your personal email BCC’ed in.