You probably take a sick day when you catch a cold or fever…but when’s the last time you took time off to nurture your mental health?
Madalyn Parker, a web developer at Olark, wrote an email to her team stating she’d be taking two days off to focus on her mental health. Her CEO, Ben Congleton, responded to the email — and his response quickly went viral after she tweeted screenshots of their email thread.
When the CEO responds to your out of the office email about taking sick leave for mental health and reaffirms your decision. ? pic.twitter.com/6BvJVCJJFq
— madalyn (@madalynrose) June 30, 2017
In his email, Congleton thanked Parker for challenging the stigma of mental health in the workplace and for reminding him how important it is to take care of one’s health and wellbeing.
Since the tweet went viral, Congleton issued his own statement and wrote, “It’s 2017. Our jobs require us to execute at peak mental performance. When an athlete is injured, they sit on the bench and recover. Let’s get rid of the idea that somehow the brain is different.”
What are your thoughts on mental health in the workplace? Weigh in on the comments below!
xx, The FabFitFun Team
