MENTAL HEALTH LEAVE FROM WORK AND HOW TO APPROACH YOUR COMPANY WITH THE MATTER

Experts explain why more people are taking leaves of absence for mental health, how best to ask your manager for it, and give other tips

Carolina Lasso's first panic attack came at a company-wide meeting, right before her scheduled presentation. She had given many similar talks about her marketing team's accomplishments. When her name was called this time, she could not speak.

"I felt a knot in my throat," she says. "My head, it felt like it was inside a bubble. I could not hear, I could not see, and it felt like an eternity. It was just a few seconds, but it was so profound, and in a way, earth-shattering to me."

Lasso was struggling after a cross-country move followed by a divorce. Her boss suggested mental health leave, a possibility she did not know existed.

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She worried whether taking time off would affect how her team viewed her or cost her a future promotion, but in the end she took it.

"I'm thankful for that opportunity to take the time to heal," Lasso, 43, says. "Many people feel guilty when they take a leave of absence when it's mental-health-related ... There is some extra weight that we carry on our shoulders, as if it had been our fault."

Despite a fear of repercussions, more adults in the United States are recognising that stepping back from work to deal with emotional burdens or psychological conditions that get in the way of their lives is a necessary choice. A growing number of employers are recognising it, too.

Under Hong Kong's labour laws, there is no such thing as "mental health leave". Any worker employed under a continuous contract is, however, entitled to sickness allowance - around 80 per cent of their average daily wages - under the Employment Ordinance for sick leave, which includes leave for mental health issues.

The employee would need to have taken four or more consecutive sick-leave days, and must provide support for the sick leave with proof such as medical certificates.

Back in the US, Chicago-based ComPsych, a provider of employee mental health programmes and absence-management services, encourages its business clients to make the well-being of workers a priority before they get to a breaking point, while also having processes in place for those who require leaves of absence.

"Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, collectively we've just been in this constant state of turmoil," says Jennifer Birdsall, the senior clinical director at ComPsych. "We have had this barrage of change and uncertainty."

Social stigma around mental health challenges causes many people to avoid seeking treatment or requesting a leave of absence. Newton Cheng, director of health and performance at Google, hopes to change that by sharing his own struggles.

His first disclosure happened during the pandemic, when a senior manager invited employees at a meeting to share how they were doing. When it was his turn, Cheng started crying.

He says he was struggling to live up to his expectations of himself as a father and did not know how to turn things around.

"It was just totally horrifying to me because, one, I had just cried in front of my coworkers and I was definitely taught as a professional - and as a man - you do not do that," Cheng says.

"And then two, I had never really said those words out loud. I hadn't even allowed myself to think that. But now they're out there and I had to face them."

Colleagues responded by relaying their own struggles, but Cheng's difficulties continued. By February 2021, he could not get out of bed because he felt paralysed by dread, he says. A therapist said he was showing symptoms of major depression and anxiety.

"I realised, 'I'm struggling a lot and this goes pretty deep. I don't think I can keep just putting duct tape on this. I probably need to take some leave,'" Cheng says.

Hoping his decision would benefit others, he announced to 200 people at a conference that he planned to take mental health leave. Instead of derailing the gathering as he feared, his honesty inspired fellow conference attendees to open up.

"It was like a fireworks show," Cheng says. "They're like, 'Wow, I can't believe he did that.' Then they forgot about me. But the tone was set. It was like, 'Oh, this is what we're doing. Let me talk about what's going on with me, too.'"

Before broaching the subject of mental health leave with a manager, consider the workplace culture and the strength of your professional relationships, Cheng says.

He recalls saying: "For my health and well-being, and the sake of my family and what's best for the business, the least risky thing for me to do is to go on leave soon."

Individuals who suspect they will receive an unsympathetic reception can simply say something like "I need to go on medical leave. I need time to recover," Cheng advises.

There is also no legal or ethical requirement to tell everyone you work with the nature of your leave.

"Your colleagues don't need to know why," says Seth Turner, co-founder of AbsenceSoft, a provider of leave and accommodation management solutions.

"They just need to know, 'I'm going to be here at this time, and I'm going to be gone at this time, and I'll be back.'"

Additional reporting by Leopold Chen

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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2025-04-23T20:39:56Z