- Hi, in today's video, I'm going to be going
over how to disclose your mental illness to your employer.
(upbeat music)
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to the Living Well with Schizophrenia channel.
My name is Lauren, and I make videos about what it's like
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All right, so this is actually the next video
in our advice series, where I answer different questions
give advice on scenarios
that are submitted by you, our audience.
Okay, so the question that was submitted was,
"I am drowning at work and I fear
that I will have no choice,
but to disclose my illness to my employer.
I'm wondering what the best way is to do this.
Do you have any experience with this?
What is the process like?"
So great question, and I think this is something
that a lot of people who are dealing with chronic illnesses,
especially mental illnesses, struggle with,
where, you know, when their mental illness starts
to impact their workplace or their work life,
the question around disclosure can come up.
So if you decide that you do want to disclose,
I will provide some tips for that and also share
about some of my own experiences with doing so.
So it's gone a multitude of different ways for me
in terms of disclosing to employers in different situations.
So the first time that I disclosed to an employer
that I was dealing with mental health struggles,
I didn't get into the nitty-gritty,
but I just kind of let them know
that I was dealing with mental health struggles.
They were very accommodating,
and they asked what kind of accommodations I needed
and how we could work together.
And we had really great open communication about that.
The next time I disclosed to an employer, though,
when issues were coming up and I needed some time off work
because of mental health struggles,
it went a very different way.
And I kind of got pushed out of the job
because I was having mental health struggles.
They didn't necessarily explicitly let me go or fire me,
but they kind of pushed me to resign on my own
by, you know, kind of making me feel bad
about keeping a spot with them.
So I'm going to give some tips to hopefully avoid this
and hopefully come out with the best possible experience
in terms of disclosing to your employer.
So my first tip is just to have it very clear in your mind
how you want to present your mental illness
or your struggles or whatnot to your employer
and having it very clear in your mind,
how you want to formulate what you are presenting to them
and what you are bringing forward to them.
The second tip being to have some education about it.
So do your own research
into what exactly the diagnosis means
or being able to provide resources and whatnot
if your employer has any questions about the illness.
The third tip is to know in your mind before you go in,
what kind of accommodations may be helpful for you.
So some examples of these can include, you know,
maybe having reduced work hours
or having everything that your boss communicates with you
written in written format,
or maybe it's asking for more flexibility on deadlines
or just doing anything like this with your employer
to mitigate or reduce stress in the workplace.
Your accommodations can really be anything
that you feel would help you succeed in the workplace
and knowing what these things are in order
to present to your employer would be really helpful.
And then the fourth tip that I have is just
to try to keep lines of communication with your employer
as open as possible.
So letting them know when you're struggling
and need a little bit of extra support
or increased accommodations,
and likewise being receptive to hearing
what they need from you as well
in order to have a cohesive work relationship.
Now, if you are in a larger organization
that has a human resources department, an HR department,
and you don't quite feel comfortable disclosing
to your immediate supervisor, your boss,
then you can always go to human resources,
the HR department, and let them know
what you're struggling with.
And then they will be able to go to your boss
or your employer and let them know
what accommodations you need
without necessarily letting them know
what you're struggling with or what your mental illness is.
If you're looking for a little bit more discretion
in terms of letting people know,
letting people you're working with know
about what you're struggling with.
And all these tips are also for, if you choose
that disclosing is the best option for you.
There is also absolutely the option to just not disclose.
If you feel that your illness is not really impacting
your work presence at all,
then it may not be necessary to disclose at all
and not disclosing a mental illness to an employer
is not lying or being deceitful at all.
It is completely up to you if you want to disclose or not.
Also just a quick note, that if you do disclose
and you feel you are being treated differently, lesser,
or if you are just let go or pushed out
of a position because of your disclosure,
here in Canada where I live, that goes
against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
And I'm sure it goes against in other places too.
There are numerous laws in place to protect people
who are living with disabilities
from this kind of discrimination.
Now, the way I've kind of presented this
is kind of the best case scenario,
where things go really well and your boss or employer
is really receptive to what you're coming to them with,
and communication is working really great.
I understand that this is not necessarily always the case.
There is still unfortunately a lot of stigma
around mental illness and mental health issues
in the workplace and in society in general.
And so, you know, disclosing may not go this smoothly.
And so again, if you do have problems, well, first off,
I just want to stress the importance
of advocating for yourself throughout the process
and advocating for yourself may involve,
if need be, seeking legal aid to either contest
being let go from a job or mistreatment
as a result of your disclosure.
All right, so I hope this video was helpful
in terms of talking about how to disclose
your mental illness to a employer.
If you have any other tips that we didn't cover
in this video, we would love to hear them
in the comments below.
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Thanks so much for watching and, as always,
wishing you and your loved ones good health.
We'll see in the next video. Bye.