Contents:
- Medical Video: How stress affects your body - Sharon Horesh Bergquist
- The importance of taking sick leave for employees who experience psychological disorders
- What should employees do if they want to take sick leave to restore their mental health?
Medical Video: How stress affects your body - Sharon Horesh Bergquist
In Indonesia, there are 6% of people who have symptoms of depression and anxiety, and 400,000 people with schizophrenia. Of course not all of these people are inpatients at the Mental Hospital, because of the fact that people with mental disorders (ODGJ) are still able to carry out routine activities like other healthy people, including work.
Work can play a very important role in restoring conditions by providing daily structures and routines, as well as providing meaning and purpose in life. In addition, it works to facilitate social support and maintain financial stability. However, like other employees with flu or colds, some employees with mental health problems also need sick leave.
The importance of taking sick leave for employees who experience psychological disorders
Most work absences involving mental health problems are caused by job stress, deadline anxiety, and depression. Mental health problems affect the way you think, feel, and behave. Not infrequently those who have depression or other mental health problems (such as anxiety disorders, panic attacks, or bipolar) easily experience fatigue, decreased self-confidence and concentration, interest in work and activity also decreases, so that appetite is also reduced.
In addition, the symptoms can take up to daily or even weeks without showing any physical symptoms. This makes people with mental disorders often ignore the warning signs until the symptoms of mental illness finally bear fruit into a "real" disease.
Stress and depression are associated with heart disease. There are at least 2 studies that show that depression can increase a person's potential for a heart attack. This disorder certainly will not only inhibit itself, but indirectly also interfere with life in the work environment, especially when the depressive phase is emerging.
"Stress influences employee performance in his work and can be an opening for greater inside and outside office problems," said Melissa Burdorf, lawyer and legal editor at XpertHR, reported by Fox News.
In fact, to be able to live a normal life and work more efficiently and productively, workers need to feel prosperous not only physically but also mentally. Taking sick leave to improve mental health allows you to recharge, refresh and rearrange your perspective, and let your body and mind rest.
When we are tired, we can lose our patience and logical outlook, which can lead to poor performance and poor communication - two things that can not only harm the career of the worker as an individual, but also harm the office business.
Therefore, Burdoff advised employers and organizations to allow their employees who are stress-prone or who have psychiatric disorders (whether officially diagnosed or still suspicious) for sick leave and resting at home to help them return to being more reliable and powerful workers.
What should employees do if they want to take sick leave to restore their mental health?
Asking for sick leave because of "stress" or for treatment for other mental disorders might be quite difficult to do in Indonesia. The reason is, in Indonesia there are no specific regulations that mention employees may leave the office for mental treatment.Even in the UK, 7 out of 10 bosses and supervisors believe that stress, anxiety, or depression are not the right reasons for sick leave.
Indonesian government regulations so far only allow workers for sick leave permits of around 1 (one) to 14 (fourteen) days, provided that the employee concerned must submit a written leave request to his supervisor by attaching a doctor's certificate.
The problem is, not many people who have mental disorders go to health facilities, or even realize that they have the disease because the symptoms are too vague. When you are in the office faced with a trigger for recurrence of depression or anxiety disorders, maybe the people around might just say that you are just "stressed", "tired", or "bored". You may not realize that what you are experiencing is far more serious than that.
"It takes one or two days of sick leave because you are overwhelmed physically and mentally should be justified, and you don't need to lie or fake it," said Kathy Caprino, a career coach and expert in work life, reported from Shape.
You can contact your boss and tell him openly that the symptoms of depression or other mental health problems that you have are recurring so that you are not fit enough to enter work. But convey this in a way that will not be debated or questioned. Bosses and superiors have an obligation not to disclose your secrets, if no other coworkers know about your condition.
But if you know that your boss lacks understanding, you can send an email on sick leave stating "personal reasons" as your reason. This usually has become a common practice in some workplaces in Indonesia. However, it is wise to use vague reasons like this. If you continue to use "personal reasons" more than 3 times a year, your boss might start to think you are no longer reliable.
