Mental Health Days

Out of curiosity, does anyone receive actual 'mental health' days with their job? If not, what do you do when you need one?

With my job we don't have them by name, but my boss is pretty good about us taking time as either sick or vacation. Back in December I thought I was just going to explode if I didn't take a day off and she was pretty understanding.

Sometimes I feel like I need them more often, but I feel sooo guilty for calling out of work, even when I'm truly sick. Like today, my back spazed out last night and I've had a lovely sore throat since Saturday and just feel kinda blah blah. Not terribly sick, just enough to be irritated by it. But there I go feeling guilty....and dreading the stacks of work on my desk. So off I went to work.

So that's what got me thinking, what's your take on 'mental health' days?

Where I use to work they had "mental health day" cuz the job was a stressful job and we just called in the night before and said we were gonna take a personal day

I take one about once a year (or more depending on stress levels). I look more at them as presents for me. Kind of like "surprise! You get the day off because you just called into work"
In previous jobs they didn't limit sick days, so that was what I identified them as *cough* *cough*.

In my current job, they allot one more week out of the year for PTO (Personal Time Off). Unfortunately this is counted as both sick and vacation time. So if I take a bunch of vacation this summer and get broncitis at the end of the year, unless I get a doc's note, I still have to go into work.
If I do get a doc's note, then its short term leave.

Where I work, we only get PTO also, so sick days (mental or other) and vacation time are all taken from this account. When it's out, you don't get paid for time off. And yes, I have before taken a day off when I just couldn't "function", but I try to limit them so I can have more for vacations.

when i worked, we also had PTO but if we did call out, we had to call out 24 hours ahead of time...which was reduced to 16 but like you are going to know that your kid is going to get sick (or you for that matter) in the night. We would get an occurence..after 3 (yes..only 3), we got a verbal, at 5, we got written up....

We used to be real good about "i'm not feeling so good boss so i might not be here in the morning" or "kid has been coughing so i might not be here". I did that for a week straight once. It's ridiculous.

Whether the notice is 16 hours or 5 minutes for my job has the same consequence..it's not like they need the notice to call someone else in because they wouldn't do that anyways.

I've never had a job in which I get paid time off. Ah, the life of a college student who's also a musician.

However, I have no qualms about taking (unpaid) mental health days when I really need them. And there are some days when we all really need them!

I own my small business so I don't get much time off anymore. But I used to be a big believer in Mental Health Days. Mostly because I rarely get sick, at least not sick enough to take off from work.

No, I don't even receive sick days if you can believe it. We have EWD's (Earned Work Days) that we can schedule in advance, but only if available, which makes no sense. We can also take half a shift at a time on short notice, but it's first come first serve because they usually only have one slot in the morning, one in the late morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, evening etc.. But because of that, the chances of getting the whole day is slim.

We do have stress leave which has to be approved, and oddly enough that gets approved more than illnesses. I don't understand why people take them though, the stress is just going to be there when you get back.

Work does alot of overage lately and will give people the whole day if it's available, but unlike the EWD's, it's not paid. Heck right now they're scheduling up to 3 months that you can take off, but it's not paid.

It was probably about a year ago that between work and some personal things I was about to lose it. I was venting to one of my bosses and he told me he was going to insist I take a mental health day the nxt day and not worry about a thing. Later he told me that he had booked me a facial at a local spa for the next day and even came and picked me up and took me there. (I don't have a car to use.)

It was pretty fab.

Everything I do in my job gets immediately undone, and I don't get any pay, sick days, mental days , or vacation. I'm a SAHM and love my job anyway.

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

I've never had a job in which I get paid time off. Ah, the life of a college student who's also a musician.

However, I have no qualms about taking (unpaid) mental health days when I really need them. And there are some days when we all really need them!

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Same here- i agree

I sure could use some mental health days off, but unfortunately we do not get any personal days.

We don't mental health days, per se, but our employer is very generous with benefits. We get 12 paid sick days per year, and can accumulate them ad infinitum. We also get 3 paid personal days per year. Right now, I get 2 paid vacation days per month; you can only carry over 15, however. In fact, today I'm taking a sick day. Hubby and I have a stomach virus, and I had the runs all last night, and felt, shall we say, drained this morning! I'm feeling a bit better now, but still feel kind of weak.


MargeCat

We get personal days and because we operate on holidays when a holiday falls on one of our normal days off we get a floating holiday. Because Monday is one of my normal days off I get a lot of floating holidays. This year I got 80 hrs of personal time and floating holidays and then I also get 80 hours of vacation. I used to call in occasionally when I really didn't want to go to work but now I have a supervisor who really doesn't like calling in so I now I will only call in if I am really too sick to come to work. We also get 48 hours of sick time a year and we can have up to 2 years worth on the books.

Originally Posted by emily_325

It was probably about a year ago that between work and some personal things I was about to lose it. I was venting to one of my bosses and he told me he was going to insist I take a mental health day the nxt day and not worry about a thing. Later he told me that he had booked me a facial at a local spa for the next day and even came and picked me up and took me there.

(I don't have a car to use.)

It was pretty fab.

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Wow your boss sounds like my old boss.

At my last job things were getting really stressfull, and of course there is always one person who knows how to get on your last nerve. Well that person really cut deep at the wrong time and I got furious. My boss was unlucky enough to ask me about her latest stunt in a less than pleasant way. I went off on him. We had a huge face off with me yelling at him and ended in me quitting. I must have been really hormonal that day. It was so unlike me, as I'm really one of the most mellow people you could meet. He was shocked, and he calmly appologized and asked me to take a few days off to rethink things.

When I came back to work, we really got along well after that. I don't know what it was, but I think someone found my threshold and decided it's best if no one crosses it. After every major project he'd send me home for a couple free days and really appreciated me.

The only other time I've needed to take a Personal Day was one day after hearing so many of my childhood friends committing suicide on by one within 2 years, the 15th one was just too much for me to take. I just went into a conference room and cried. I didn't even want to tell anyone why, I'd just had it. My boss was so nice. He had someone take me home. I told him later what had happened, and he said he figured it was something like that.

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

Everything I do in my job gets immediately undone, and I don't get any pay, sick days, mental days

, or vacation. I'm a SAHM and love my job anyway.

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You are so right...everything you get done gets undone...*sigh*

I love being a sahm but i'm a college student too. Some women don't like being a sahm..i LOVE it.