Madalyn Parker is a web developer at an engineering company based in Michigan, USA. One day, she feels the need to take a little “break” “for her mental health”. The young woman therefore decided to take two days of sick leave. Far from ignoring the reasons for these “off” days, she sends an email to her superior and her team explaining the need to “focus on her mental health”.
A courageous step for the American when the corporate culture struggles to recognize, even stigmatizes, disorders related to mental health (such as depression, anxiety where the burn out) among employees.
Breaking taboos on mental health in the workplace
To understand why this story sparked considerable buzz on social media, one must know the response of Madalyn’s superior, which proved quite disarming. Full of empathy, Ben Congleton, director of the company, salutes Madalyn for her honesty by thanking her for breaking the taboo on taking into account the mental health of employees. “I wanted to personally thank you for sending emails like this, he replied in the email, relayed by Madalyn on his twitter account June 30. […] It’s a reminder of the importance of using sick leave to take care of your mental health – I can’t understand why this isn’t standard practice across all companies. You are an example for all of us and you allow us to break a taboo so that we can be fully ourselves at work.”
This exchange of emails was shared and “liked” massively on Twitter. In many comments, Internet users have encouraged employers to show as much understanding towards their employees.
In France, 3.2 million French people are exposed to a high risk of burnout. Last June, the Haute Autorité de Santé issued recommendations for better identification and better management of this burnout syndrome, which is not recognized as an occupational disease.
When the CEO responds to your out of the office email about taking sick leave for mental health and reaffirms your decision. pic.twitter.com/6BvJVCJJFq
— madalyn (@madalynrose) June 30, 2017
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