Man Fired While Seeking Help for Suicidal Urges
An Ohio man who was fired when a co-worker took him to an emergency room after he confessed to having suicidal urges is now suing his former employer, according to a report in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The man, identified only as "John Doe", was director of business development at Knowledgeworks, an non-profit organization in the Cincinnati area.
In his lawsuit, filed on August 22 in Hamilton County, he said his employer was aware of his depression. According the documents filed, he had gone to a park in April with a gun with the intention of committing suicide, but changed his mind and continued on to work, where he asked two co-workers for help. One of the co-workers then drove him to the emergency room. While he was there, Patty Conley, Knowledgeworks' chief operating officer, called his wife and informed her that her husband had been dismissed.
The suit seeks to have the man reinstated to his job with back pay and compensatory and punitive damages.
Comments
I went thru this myself with an employer but they were more understanding with me.
I found myself getting depressed when I was unemployed because of the lack of structure. I never experienced a severe depressive episode while I was on a job– but for the few days I had to take off here and there, I just told my employer I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t go into the reasons because I was afraid of how they would react.
Wendy Aron, author of Hide & Seek: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness
http://www.wendyaron.com
I have worked in Institutional settings, military and civilian, for over 30 years. Most employees are very apprehensive about reporting mental health issues to their employer for fear of loss of job. Many go outside the official health and employee assistance programs to get help. Some self medicate causing further problems.
The mn was geting help and seem like the boss should of tried to give him a little understanding. I was fired from a job after i hurt my back and was on a medical leave. Employers can be such a pain and some have no feelings for anyone. Bless this man for doing what a lot of people should do.
The action to terminate this man from his job, is another infuriating example of the stigma and falsehoods that continue to be perpetuated in our society, including many corporations, about the realities of mental illness. If the man had cancer, would he have been terminated? In yet mental illnesses are equally a physiologically based illness. If sufferers of mental illness are left fearful of seeking help from others; family, friends and co-workers (and employers), they are left with no choice but to remain silent and they are abandoned, to suffer and they are left in all too many instances, to die. We, all of us as a society can and must, do better!
What that boss did should be considered a criminal act under the circumstances. It is she who should be dismissed.
I have never told a boss about my illness. If the boss does find out, the employee is relegated and not considered for promotion.
Its not as if the employee should be given work that he or she isn’t able to do- just that they should be shown more encouragement to succeed, not less.
I have found that when a boss showed confidence in me, I have always done well. I think that a lot of people who have depression actually suffer from lack of stimulation on a job. i.e. If the job is interesting and interactive, the employee is actually LESS likely to suffer a relapse.
When I was first diagnosed my employer was unsupported, and terminated my employment.
I agree with much of what Paul says, it is always a boon to work with support, and confidence from the employer.
The same thing happened to my husband. He became suicidal while at work, and we received a letter of his termination while he was still hospitalized. They said they weren’t aware of his condition and had every right to fire him since he acted inappropriately at work.
Its gut-wrenching and doesn’t seem morally right. But I will say the last thing I was worried about at the time, was his job. Human life is more precious than any paycheck.
However, it has put our family in an even worse place financially than we were in before.
I experience a same situation as he was. I use to do some sort of mistakes on the job, my employer noticed and asked me the reason. I told him the situation. He didnt fired me but gave some time to get well if I can. In that period I took proper medication and proper support form my family and friends. now i can work much concentrated as before.
Yes I was fire for the same thing. I was descriminated against for having a mental illness even though I never missed work or broke any company polycies and was emplyed with an examplary record for 14 years. It was an extremely difficult time. I wish this gentle all the luck hopelly he wont find the court system as unjust as I did.
Are u kidding me???? This is another prime example of how our society treats people with mental illness, as if it is something to be embarassed about. It is absolutely ridiculous that someone who had the guts enough to ask for help is being penalized by losing their job.
There are so many of us out there with mental illness of some kind and this is why people don’t ask for help when they should!!!! This kind of behaviour has to stop, it is completely unacceptable and that supervisor and company need to be held accountable for their actions!!
People need to be encouraged to come forward and ask for help when they need it and when they do, they should be given the support they need. A mental illness is not something to be embarassed about, it is no different than any other illness, and shouldn’t be treated as such.
SHAME ON KNOWLEDGEWORKS for their lack of understanding and compassion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think depression was used as an excuse to get me to admit I couldn’t do the job. I was doing an excellent job, according to all evaluations, however. In the previous job,which went a long way to creating depression, management could have cared less. Every employee filed a grievance, one was lucky to get a transfer, one retired, one was fired and one got another job. I cannot imagine that anyone who is genuinely clinically depressed could avoid it affecting his or her entire life, including life on the job.
To fire somebody because they are “feeling” temporarily suicidal is not right. The suicidal “feelings” are usually only temporary and the person will get over his suicidal feelings after appropriate mental health treatment. On the other hand, if the man was suicidal because he hated his job, then being fired might be a blessing for him. Hopefully he will find a job that gives him a feeling of self-fulfillment. It’s a bummer to work with somebody who is depressed all the time because depression is contagious. I have quit a job when I felt depressed because of hating the job. My happiness is much more important than putting in 8 hours at a job that makes me feel depressed.
Yip went through the same thing with my boss, people do not understand depression, because you cannot see it like a broken arm or leg. Yeah lost my job as you don`t know when you are coming back to work, and you feel like damaged goods.Not a good feeling to try and explain what you don`t understand.
The US Government needs to step in and set stronger laws for corporate america and employers. Corporate America and most employers only care about the almighty dollar and not about humans. Sad but true. One of the biggest law firms (very prosperous financially) in the world did not give one care about the employees who were sick in any way, physically or mentally. They would fire you in a second. I am not sure what we and employees can do about it. ONE VOICE. I guess.
We do not know if the gun was brought into the workplace.
i am no longer working — i have been disabled for 5 years, but i had to start taking antidepressants a few years before i became disabled and with the meds i was taking i would sometimes forget certain things and she told me that i needed to get off all my meds — even though she had no idea what the meds were for. i also overheard others talking about people “being medicated” and laughing at it… its hard to believe that people can be as cruel as this. if you have a heart problem or a similar “illness” no one laughs when you have to take meds for that — but since it is a mental illness it is immediately something to make fun of someone about. you would think that by this time people would know more about mental illness etc., but they don’t seem to.
I have gone out of way over my 10 years with MD to hide it at all costs from my employers. It has been my experience that, (supposedly) educated on the topic or not, employers understanding of depressive illness does extend to your workplace security/relationship/confidence.
I work inmental health myself, and I truly hope to one day find that we live in a world where people are not discriminated against for their mental illness. However, I am saddened to say that I cant see it happening… at least not for a very long time.
I cannot believe that this kind of behavior is still going on with employers! They fire an employee b/c he is reaching out for help to help his suicidal feelings and tendacies??? This is just outrageous and I wish him well in his lawsuit. I think he’ll win.
What’s worse than this story is the story I just heard on Fox and CNN News of a guy that was in a pysch unit, made to sit in a chair for 20 hours, as he was choking on his meds…
The man eventually died as a result of the staff’s negligence. Oh, and by the way, the staff watched the man, as he was dying!!
I too have been “let go” of a job due to my depression. The sad thing was I was working at a psychiatric hospital of all places. They were understanding in the begining when I had an episode in which I had to be hospitalized myself at a different facility. I was hospitalized for 3 other all together unrelated medical emergencies in the following two years for which I had to use the family medical leave act which I think contributed to their decision to let me go but what spured it was a short period of time in which I was adjusting to a new medication that caused some difficulty concentrating. I was having difficulty keeping up with the strict requirements for different types of paperwork being completed within a specific time limit (corp. productivity requirements!). I was honest, big mistake. To their credit they did give me notice and time to make other arrangements. I had worked for them for 3 years before ever having to take a day off due to illness. But in the suicidal man’s case, isn’t this illegal to fire him, I thought that was what the family medical leave act was put in place to prevent. Firings for having to take off for illness, physical or mental, and it doesn’t even need to be for yourself! I hope he wins, I thought of doing the same thing.
WOW, What a situation, well the company maybe should have an therapist who can help staff with problems, I experienced bad depression some years ago and yes I thought “am I better off out of this crap? Well I AM STILL HERE AND THE CRAP IS NOT AS BAD, You see suicide is a permanent soloution to a temporary problem. I hope this guy gets reinstated, and if the company want a good therapist to come and work for them, well I could be pursueded to leave the UK for a good salary. Some people have no idea what goes on in the mind of people who are depressed, and if John Doe would like to add me to his MSN and chat to someone thousands of miles away who will not judge no problem, ustopsmoking@hotmail.com
What some of these companies fail to realise is it is the pressuses of work that contribute to staffs stress levels. So to this man I say, learn to see things in a different way.
shaun.
It seems to me that some manager are on power trips and literally take pleasure in flexing their muscles and kicking people while they’re down. I worked for a company that I felt actually tried to drive me emotionally insane. I did become very depressed and had to conduct a job search while still working there. I feel they forced me out of a position I was really good at and liked because it was more important and entertaining to them to see me struggle. It was a scary time and I was single and supporting myself at the time. It’s very difficult to interview for another job when you’re so depressed that your confidence and self-esteem are in the toilet. I am glad this gentleman has a wife and at least a couple of friends from the workplace who are able to show support. It makes all the difference!
“Pam says: Firings for having to take off for illness, physical or mental …”
Just a brief follow up on one snippet of Pam’s thoughtful comment. Clinically diagnosed mental illness(es) ARE physical Re: imbalance/lack of specific brain chemistry. Personally, I loathe the term “mental illness” as it feeds into the bias and stigma that we are weak-minded, rather than physically (brain) ill. Oh and Kudos to Pam for working within the mental health system – no easy job for someone struggling with their own “mental illness” (did I mention that I loathe that term). :-/
This article terrified me! I am dual diagnosed, with alcoholism and major depressive disorder. I attempted suicide several times and have been out of work for 2 years. I don’t know how to explain the gap in my resume?
Jeremiah, just say you had a health issue that has been resolved. The important thing is to stress that it’s now resolved. I’ve also covered the sudden withdrawal from school and move across the country (for rehab) as a family crisis, now resolved.
Or you can just be up front and say that you’re an alcoholic and got sober. People are surprisingly accepting of that nowadays. I prefer to be blunt like that because I don’t want to work for anyone who is intolerant of my sobriety. When I confessed this in the interview for my current job, my future boss told me that he was also an alcoholic. I think he hired me because he knew that I had the strength and determination to get sober, which isn’t easy. It’s the best job I ever had, and it’s great to feel no awkwardness about drinking about business functions. Everyone knows the boss doesn’t drink, and thus there is no pressure or spotlight thrown on me.
Good luck! I struggled with a bleak depression at ~2-3 years sober, and getting back to work was the major thing that brought me out of it. You can do it!
I was just terminated from my job as a mailroom manager of one of the big 4 acounting firms after 8 years.
My Mom discovered she had a brain tumor in the winter of 07-08, progressed to total blindness and deafness over the summer, and is now comatose. Who in the world couldn’t empathize? It’s been extremely stressful and because of this I’ve been late (no more than 1/2 hr) on average 1 time a month since the spring because of this.
During a very busy period 2 errors in shipments occured (out of THOUSANDS I processed) that I was responsible for: One)I accidently sent to the wrong location (inter-office in another city)a shipment; when I discovered my mistake I immediately made every attempt to rectify the error, and the shipment was found after 4 days and sent on to it’s proper aaddressee.Everyone involved, including my superiors, were kept fully informed by me with detailed emails and verbally. Two) A shipment went out one day later than desired through my error.
I was called into an office at 5:15PM and terminated, the reasons above being given.
Please bear in mind 98% of the work I did was flawless, I got along exceptionally well with co-workers and others, had great reviews but because (I believe) of those two shipments (contained workpapers for quality review) a senior partner wanted someone fired and I was the person.
Everyone involved was well aware of the stress I was under and still going through. It’s a crappy world we live in; a huge wealthy firm basically showed zero empathy for someone under my circumstances and essentially arbirtarily fired me. I’ve never in my life felt soo small and alone, the depression, anxiety and inability to trust now I don’t belive will ever go away.
Maybe one day American workers will get real tangible rights in the work place, not the Employee at Will crap, and crap like this won’t happen.
How many of the hotshots who “Lost” trillions of dollars, bankrupting whole industries, been punished? Non, in fact they recieved multi million dollar packages and the industry is being bailed out (by the taxpayer)with corporate welfare. This world suks.
The responses here are ridiculous: how does anyone know what his performance was like before termination, and how does anyone know that his position could not be done by someone depressed? People have too many selfish hang-ups on their own welfare. I’ve thought about suicide and self-harm, but all it does it motivate me to work harder. I’m proud to have alienated my family, live a simpler life, demand nothing from my employers, and even if I have weak, shame-filled moments of angst or the sin of despair manifests as depression I know I only have myself to blame. This idea of class warfare between management and employees is communist bunk. We must all work as hard as we can and sacrifice as much as we can in order to defeat our economic enemies and prove our superiority! Whiny people should realise the shame they give the American race and either step up, or step aside – there’s plenty of ways to end a useless, unproductive life.
This is precisely the reason why I’ll never say a single word to anyone. If the society still dictates that suffering in silence is the way to go, who am I to argue? I can’t afford to be labeled.