The Workplace and Mental Illness

My dream for employers and mental illness of all sorts, is for someone to be able to say in the interview, and I have a diagnosis of…fill in the blank. And the employer will say, okay, tell me what I need to know to make this work. Because we want you to work for us.

If someone is in treatment- they deserve the respect for their strength and their recovery that anybody else does. So, I would want them to say, tell me what I need to know to know when you’re on track and off track and how can I help you if you get off track? And I see your strengths and I’d love to hire you. What they get in return and what this employer got in return was an employee who loved their job, who knew their job, and who was passionate about what they did. And so when they said, if he’s ill, he’s ill. It doesn’t matter to us; tell him his job is waiting for him.