• BougieBirdie
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    7 hours ago

    I once had my employer perform a wellness check when I was having a mental health episode.

    I was working remotely, but my mental health was in the toilet. I had a candid conversation with my supervisor where I told him I needed some time off because I had been feeling suicidal. He was an absolute bro, told me I was doing a good job, and that I earned some time off. He agreed that our conditions and the demands from management were absurd. He tells me to just take some time, and he’ll clear the way with HR.

    Well, I’m logging off my computer when I get a call from his boss. He’s asking why I’m suddenly taking some time off. I tell him that I haven’t been feeling well, but he keeps badgering me for a specific reason. I tell him that I’m very vulnerable and don’t want to disclose a reason. That’s between me and my doctor.

    Well he keeps pressing and he tells me that, “sharing our vulnerabilities is what fosters trust.” So I’m like fine, you really want to know, this job and your management style are making me suicidal.

    Tone immediately shifts. He’s going into full damage control cover-your-ass mode. He tells me that I should consider a different career if I’m not up to the task. I’m already having like the worst day of my life (so far) and I start to have a panic attack.

    I tell him you know what, it’s not his business and I’m going to call my doctor. Before I can get on the phone with my doctor, HR is calling me. They tell me they have to get hold of my emergency contact to make sure I’m not currently killing myself. I tell them my emergency contact is out of town (unrelated), so they say they have to call the police. I ask her not to, there’s no risk to myself and things have been taken out of context. HR insists that it’s company policy.

    So while I’m hyperventilating because my boss pressed me for more details than I was comfortable sharing about my health, they sent a man with a gun to my house to check on me.

    I understand that the company is protecting its liability or whatever. But I really felt that my rights had been violated somehow. The police are not suitable to intervene in a mental health episode. I had a new fear that I wouldn’t be able to calm down when the police arrived and I’d end up shot or something.

    TLDR - I know this post is fake, but companies really do feel like they own their employees. A wellness check from your employer is absolutely bullshit, but that won’t stop them from trying.

    • can@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      Jesus fucking christ, I have nothing to add other than I’m so sorry you went through that.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 hours ago

      I understand that the company is protecting its liability or whatever.

      The company can do that by training your boss not to ask questions related to your health.

    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Life gets a lot easier when you realize you don’t have to answer questions that you don’t want to, and “No” is a complete sentence. Not berating you, just letting you know that you didn’t have to fall for their pressure tactics. Just keep not answering their questions until they give up.

      I hope you’re doing better these days.

    • burgersc12@mander.xyz
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      5 hours ago

      I learned at a real young age to never tell anyone you feel suicidal unless you want to end up “involuntarily committed”. Won’t even bring up my depression unless I’m around a real friend.

      • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world
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        46 minutes ago

        Same. I did have a therapist a few years ago that I told some real bad shit to, but that was after a couple of years of building trust; I was still scared of getting a pair of grippy socks. I went to see them because of a… let’s go with a ‘stopped suicide attempt’. Stroke at a young age, fiancé left me, no hope, career goals shattered, physically fucked, financially ruined, etc so rock bottom was looking down at me like ‘damn bro I’m sorry’.

        A few close friends know things that others don’t, shit I’m not about to spill here. But it’s because they either have been in a similar situation and we have worked to keep each other alive and going, or they have degrees in the field of mental health and don’t mind trying to keep my head above water, or they are my (ex, current, etc) partner.

        There’s no fucking way I’m going to just casually be like “you ever just want to go to the roof, get right on the ledge, shoot yourself - and in case that doesn’t take you out, the concrete walkway at the foot of the 20 story fall will finish the job? No? Just me then? Ha, funny. I hate life. Haha.”

      • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        Same.

        Perfect solution to feeling like life has no worth except making profits for billionaires is obviously to forcibly lock them up in a hospital for a week and stick them with a $20k bill. That’ll fix all that depression. /s

        • Kaity@leminal.space
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          4 hours ago

          It’s not just a hospital too by the way. It was a murder short of feeling like I was in the asylum from outlast. Wailing, fighting, screaming and all other sorts of antisocial behavior, with the staff barely in control. At the least that was how it felt and being committed to that place beyond just preventing my possible suicide in the short term became a lasting traumatic experience.

    • cnirrad@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      That is fucked up. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I hope you have found a better company to work for.

      • BougieBirdie
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        6 hours ago

        Thanks for the kind words, friend.

        I know this is a comedy community and I’m not trying to be a bring down. But I also think it’s important to talk about this kind of thing because, well, it’s the kind of thing that corporate america would want to sweep under the rug. We need to normalize talking about mental health because it’s yet another public health crisis that doesn’t get enough attention.

        I’m out of that dumpster fire now, but I’m still looking for my dream job.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          5 hours ago

          Every large company I’ve worked for (since the mid 90’s) never swept this stuff under the rug - quite the opposite, actually. I’ve seen people with all sorts of issues being accommodated.

          Practically every team I’ve been on had at least one person with some kind of issue. We all knew, and adjusted. Once in a while you get an asshole teammate or manager…those quickly get a reputation and people avoid working with them.

          Companies are painfully aware of risk.

    • Promethiel@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Holy fuck. That is beyond the pale, and I’m sorry you had to go through that. Chills thinking how wrong that could go.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      5 hours ago

      Shit, I’d be calling a lawyer just to put a scare into that boss. Fucking douchebag.

      “I’m not well today, I can’t work, that’s all you fucking need to know”.

      I’ve never had a boss even ask why. Frankly, he should know better…what he doesn’t know he can’t be liable for. Dumbass. Plus who has the time to worry about why? Does it change anything? No.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    My employer generally sucks, but one of the few things they do right is give us no-questions-asked PTO. Nobody cares if we take a day, it’s part of our compensation.

  • Sundial@lemm.ee
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    8 hours ago

    Please tell me this is a joke. I legitimately don’t know if it is or isn’t.

      • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Not gona lie, I do like the speed limit leaderboard. Though I would see people trying to get the “high score” on something like this.

        • Iceblade@lemmy.world
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          36 minutes ago

          This was a huge issue with the automated speed signs around where I live. They had to take them down because of it and reprogram them to stop showing the speed and instead flash the speed limit when people were speeding.

        • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world
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          29 minutes ago

          Nobody beats my high scores. Nobody.

          E: actually, some trivia. You have seen those “your speed” signs with an led readout? Now I can’t say how I know this, but - at least on some variants, models, etc - there is an upper limit/safety check. “if user’s speed variable is higher than X, turn off the sign, it’s malfunctioning” logic. So, just for a hypothetical situation, the assigned speed limit is 25mph but you go through at, I don’t know, let’s pick a number that is absolutely not what I tested, and say 60. The readout will reach that number as the user accelerates towards it, hit the upper limit, immediately shutoff, and will (afaik) need to be reset manually. Returning hours later reveals a dead readout. Returning a couple days later, oh hey it’s back.

          So we already have this, but it’d be nice to get scores higher than like ~40 over. And history, sharing…

        • Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 hours ago

          “Go for the high score” is definitely a thought that crosses my mind every time I see one of those speed radar things the police sometimes put on the side of the road that flashes your speed at you. Kinda feel like those things actually encourage unsafe driving because of people like me with impulse control issues.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      Definity a fake post. The small text says the cost of the check deducted from the employee’s payroll.

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        meanwhile useless incompetent middle managers across america are seeing the post and salivating while furiously looking for where to sign up for the service

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Tesla might get in some serious trouble in Germany for allegedly doing this to sick employees.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        6 hours ago

        “cost deducted from employee’s payroll” is the most realistic part, IMHO. I worry this joke will give someone ideas IRL. And that part is how they will sell it to CEOs.

        • candybrie@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          That part is currently illegal even in the US. So, baking it into an app would be a bad idea. Most of the time companies do illegal things, they try to be less explicit.

      • Sundial@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        Honestly, based on the stories of what’s happening in America. That’s not a reliable indicator.

    • Rooki@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      I could 100% say this is a possibility in america. ( Except the “we’ll bring her to office” part lol )

  • Anderenortsfalsch@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 hours ago

    Nice joke until reality comes along: https://winfuture.de/news,145540.html

    German article translates to:

    The Tesla plant in Grünheide had to accept a record number of sick days, at least in August: Around 17 percent of the 12,000 employees were affected. At the beginning of September, the figure had fallen to around 11 percent, according to a report in the Handelsblatt newspaper. However, this is still comparatively high.

    As a result, the plant management had begun to visit employees on sick leave at home and check on them. Head of HR Erik Demmler was surprised that he was sometimes met with an aggressive attitude, as he explained to Handelsblatt. It had happened that the door had simply been slammed in his face. There were even instances of people threatening to call the police.

    Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

  • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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    7 hours ago

    this is funny and reminds me that when you call in sick

    just say you are calling in sick, don’t give any reasons. Fuck them they don’t need to know why

    sometimes mental health days where you just chill and do shit you want to do is a perfectly good sick day