Boss Refuses To Accept A Doctor's Note From Employee's Psychiatrist For Missing Work — 'Push Through & Come In'
It's called mental "illness" for a reason — and this might even be against the law.
YURII MASLAK | Shutterstock We have a far greater understanding of mental health today than any other time in history. But one worker's story about how their boss handled their work absence due to mental health struggles shows just how much farther we have to go — and why legal protections for such issues are so important.
The worker was written up by their boss for missing a day due to mental health issues.
As we've all surely heard by now, the U.S. is in the grips of a staggering mental health crisis, and it's had an astonishing impact on the workplace.
A recent study by a provider of mental health-related employee assistance programs found that mental health-related leaves of absence surged 33% between 2022 and 2023 — and a shocking 300% since 2017.
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Sadly, many employers are still living in the past, and one Redditor's boss is a perfect example.
When they missed work due to the impacts of their struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, their boss had a response that was not only antiquated and cruel but possibly illegal.
After demanding a doctor's note for the absence, the worker's boss refused to accept a letter from their psychiatrist.
"I have PTSD-related nightmares," the worker shared in their Reddit post, which is a common symptom of the condition, in which their nervous system essentially "relives" a traumatic event over and over. The condition is often debilitating.
In this worker's case, they rely on vital medication to stave off the nightmares and prevent them from having insomnia. Without it, they are "paranoid at night" and "afraid," and hence unable to sleep.
When their medication refill was delayed by their pharmacy, it resulted in the worker missing two nights of sleep. "For about 30 hours… I did not even shut my eyes," they wrote. "The longer I was awake, the more paranoid I got. So I called in to work."
As a restaurant employee who works "in a kitchen with fryers and grills everywhere," working after two sleepless nights is not just a drag, it's downright dangerous. "I could have killed myself yesterday," the worker bluntly put it. But their boss could not have been less understanding.
Their boss refused to accept a psychiatrist's letters as a doctor's note and told them they needed to just 'push through' their PTSD.
The next day, their boss asked them if they had a doctor's note for their absence. "I asked her if a note from my psychiatrist would be valid because it’s a mental health-related absence."
Her boss was not willing to be accommodating and then said something pretty appalling: "'I mean sometimes you have to just push through it and come in.'"
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That is, to put it lightly, not how mental illness works, but their boss was unmoved. "I told her I hadn’t slept in [30] hours, and that’s why I called in, and she just reiterates. 'Well, I have sleep problems too; sometimes it’s not an excuse.'" But in this case, it explicitly was.
That did not stop the manager from writing them up for missing the shift, and the worker has been left astonished and confused by how the situation has shaken out.
As PTSD is a protected disability, what their boss did is likely illegal, and people urged them to handle the situation differently next time.
"I’m just wondering how this is legal?" they asked their fellow Redditors. "PTSD is recognized as a disability, and sometimes (most of the time) it does inhibit my life to the point I am unable to do basic tasks, like… sleeping… for example."
They are correct. PTSD is one of several mental illnesses covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and what their manager did is almost certainly illegal disability discrimination. For this reason, Redditors urged them to go to HR or a higher manager and even to consult a lawyer.
Others urged them to handle this situation differently next time, starting by not giving any explanation of why they missed work and not asking if their psychiatrist's two cents would suffice. "A psychiatrist is a doctor," one person wrote. "All you have to tell her if it ever happens again is that you will get the note. You don't owe her any explanation."
In fact, under the rules of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, employees aren't even required to comply with requests for a doctor's note or disclose anything about their health if they don't want to.
As another Redditor bluntly put it, "It doesn't matter if you have an infected hangnail. You don't owe anyone an explanation for your health issues… Sue this [manager] or at the very least report to HR," they wrote.
None of this should be required in the first place. Employers should just listen to employees when they tell them they're sick and leave them alone. But in this case, it's likely the employee has the kind of legal recourse to make them learn this lesson the hard way.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.