Mark's Story

Mark worked for a large company for fifteen years when he got a shock call from his manager ...

I work for a very large company that is based in another State. I had been working there for 15 years when out of the blue I get a call from my sales manager saying he will be in my State in two days time. I asked why as I'd seen him interstate only a week ago, his response was that he was going to see my colleague, this turned out to be an absolute untruth. He intended to see me all the time about so-called performance issues.

I had been seeing my Psychiatrist and he had told me that my major depression was progressing which was not pleasing for me. Anyway back to the story. My manager accused me of being quiet at sales meetings and generally not contributing, using email too much and a few other things all which were attributable to depression. I then proceeded to tell him that I did have major depression and that was causing me to be quiet at meetings; I also felt as though I did not want to talk very much and email was the best way to correspond. He then in his best caring manner said to me "So, what are you going to do about it?"

I went and sat in the car and couldn't believe it. I rang the big boss and complained about his attitude, he then came to see me to try sort out the problem, which only made it worse from a depression point of view as he had the same attitude "what are you going to do about it?"  

The very next day I went to my Psych as I couldn't even put a set of car keys in the ignition; straight to hospital, 7 doses of ECT 14 day's later and I'm no better. That's not to mention a big dose of toxic shock from Lithium. I then had 3.5 months off on sick leave. Then I was contacted by the company's 'return to work officer' and in conjunction with her and my 2 doctors I returned to work gradually. My very first day back one of my customers said hello to me at a conference and asked what was wrong with me and I burst out crying, couldn't stop for a good 15-20 minutes. This happened at another trade show 2 days later. Basically I felt as though I had no choice but to go back to work.

Eight months later, after I finally get up the courage to tell the HR Manager about it when she was visiting, I found out that they have broken all of the company's policies and procedures. I proceeded to tell her the whole story, only to break down again and cry for at least 10 minutes. Unfortunately, as a result of ECT I can't remember a lot of what went on. I was supposed to have a witness of my choice to be in attendance, this would have been useful for me!  Now that we are going through a rather large merger with another company here's what they have done. Offered me a take it or leave it job; this job is at a much lower level than I'm currently on and I'll have no reports. The only saving grace in all this is that I won't lose any salary as a result. I'm meeting tomorrow with the HR Manager and the National Sales Manager to hear their final pitch.

I would strongly advise anybody not to tell their employer they have depression unless they are painted into a corner.