Woman Takes Sick Leave For Her Mental Health and Her Boss Is Totally For It

The climate around mental health is changing which gives all of us that suffer from depression or anxiety some hope for the future

Jack

• Published in Interesting
• May 4, 2019

Madalyn Parker, a web developer from Michigan, recently decided that she was going to take a few days off work in order to get her mental health back on track.

This is legal in her state and under her employment contract, so she took the days off. While she was off she left an automated message explaining to those she works with where she had gone and when she would be back.

When her boss, the CEO of the company, saw this auto-response, he couldn't help but send Madalyn an email applauding her for having the guts to openly take time off for her mental health, stating that he thinks this should be the norm everywhere.

Madalyn Parker

Madalyn's auto-response email and her bosses reply.

What an absolutely awesome guy! This is how every manager should react to someone needing time for their mental health and is hopefully a sign of the climate around mental health changing for the better.

"It's nice to see some warm, fuzzy feelings pass around the internet for once,"

Parker says of the response to her tweet.

"I've been absolutely blown away by the magnitude though. I didn't expect so much attention!"

Even more impressive than the tweet's reach, however, were the heartfelt responses it got.

"Thanks for giving me hope that I can find a job as I am," 

wrote one person, who opened up about living with panic attacks.

"That is bloody incredible," 

chimed in another.

"What a fantastic CEO you have."

The CEO Ben Congleton chimed in himself.

"It’s 2019. We are in a knowledge economy. Our jobs require us to execute at peak mental performance,"

Congleton wrote.

"When an athlete is injured, they sit on the bench and recover. Let’s get rid of the idea that somehow the brain is different."

Jack