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DT hivemind - what does a "mental health day" mean to you? or "Personal Leave day" in general?
In my brain (office work, Gen X) my personal leave is for dealing with either being sick, caring for someone else or preventing being out of action (might be doctors appointments, might be a day off because I'm processing physical or mental stress etc). I have a team member that often asks in advance for a "mental health day" and their vibe is that this is a 'not a lot on this week I'll grab a day off'....if this were me I'd take an annual leave day. Also I have worked through poor mental health and other illness because I was scared of stigma so I'm aware someone saying 'mental health' in a blase way might niggle at me for my own reasons....
It just made me wonder how people see personal vs annual leave and if it changes based on industry / age etc.
Ok so for my work a personal leave day comes out of my sick leave and it’s when I just want a day’s break either to rest or do whatever I want.
We get allocated 3 days in a year for personal necessity leave and that’s all we need to give to do whatever we want for the day as long as we don’t take it consecutively next to each other.
If I want a mental health day I’ll call in as sick on the day or use a PNL day.
If I’m feeling crappy I’ll take an official sick day off.
Edit: I also do not get annual leave in the traditional sense due to the nature of my work.
The majority of my personal leave days are for mental health in my mind. Those days you wake up and say "nah fuck this shit, not today", or where I've had a shit sleep and could work but would be hating every second and not doing a great job. Or because work has actually been really rough and I'm stressed out and need a breather. I have no guilt taking these days off. I also do not straight up say they are for mental health, none of my companies business. It's a sick day and if they want me to get a med cert I will (but thankfully they rarely do).
I use sick leave for mental health days. With how much evidence is coming out about how our mental and physical health are connected, and anecdotally I'm more susceptible to colds when mentally fucked. I also have CPTSD and when that flares I can't sleep, and I can't work if I can't sleep.
I suspect most of my own issues will alleviate with removing myself from call centre work, however. But mental health is different for everyone. Some can work through it (I can work through my depression, for example), and some cannot. It affects everyone differently. Plus, Im not in the habit of divulging my medical history to coworkers, so I just say I'm unwell and will not be in, and I'll get a med cert/Stat Dec, and that's that.
Edit to add: I have never "booked" a sick day in advance though. Like, I've never sat at work and thought "I'm gonna take X day off next week". I use annual for that sort of thing, like maybe a day of annual after a busy period, to recharge. But not a sick day in advance.
Yeah I am getting better at taking a day when whatever issue is starting to flare, and it's not uncommon for people to have a personal leave day for not sleeping or just generally feeling crap. We are a pretty open and accepting team generally. But I think it's the booking ahead that strikes me as weird ...
I think that's the odd thing here; they booked it in advance. Very odd behaviour.
I don't think I've even considered it possible to do haha