Mental health leave from work and how to approach your company with the matter
Experts explain why more people are taking leaves of absence for mental health, how best to ask your manager for it, and give other tips
Carolina Lasso’s first panic attack came at a company-wide meeting, right before her scheduled presentation. She had given many similar talks about her marketing team’s accomplishments. When her name was called this time, she could not speak.
“I felt a knot in my throat,” she says. “My head, it felt like it was inside a bubble. I could not hear, I could not see, and it felt like an eternity. It was just a few seconds, but it was so profound, and in a way, earth-shattering to me.”
Lasso was struggling after a cross-country move followed by a divorce. Her boss suggested mental health leave, a possibility she did not know existed.
She worried whether taking time off would affect how her team viewed her or cost her a future promotion, but in the end she took it.
“I’m thankful for that opportunity to take the time to heal,” Lasso, 43, says. “Many people feel guilty when they take a leave of absence when it’s mental-health-related … There is some extra weight that we carry on our shoulders, as if it had been our fault.”
Despite a fear of repercussions, more adults in the United States are recognising that stepping back from work to deal with emotional burdens or psychological conditions that get in the way of their lives is a necessary choice. A growing number of employers are recognising it, too.