[Livebythesea]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this post. It is my first one as I am struggling at work from a major depression for the past 4 months. I work in the finance/hr dept of a non profit (in the USA)

I have called in sick for the past month, except for two days. My boss used to be compassionate as she knows I have had mild depression before (not about serious ones) and suffered major marital problems. About a week ago my boss had a mtg with me, basically a verbal warning about my performance, and that the dept is getting more grants soon and I have to do better etc. I got so stressed from the mtg I called in sick after learning she had hired a temp and that I was supposed to train her on what I do. So I missed work all of last week also.

I have a meeting with her again on Monday and I told her I would be bringing a doctor's note. The note says I have a major depression which is affecting my daily functioning and I'm being treated with medication,( which isn't working yet).

I don't want to lose my job but I need to do very low level tasks until I get better. My boss doesn't seem open to this because the department is getting a lot of new work, she basically told me this during our mtg a week ago). What do I do? I feel like I may get let go Monday, but if not my psych dr said he will fill out a form for short term disability. How does it work? Do I just stop going to work and mail the doctor portion of form to my boss/who is also HR? Will she send to the insurance company? I hate that possibly everyone in my department might see my diagnosis on the form.

I am also worried I am going to handle this all wrong by giving her a note that says I have major depression, but I asked for a note since calling in and using all of my sick days for a month is a long time!

Thanks so very much for your help and guidance.

[Kingsley85]

I think if you send HR a note about your medical condition it's against the law for them to reveal what it says to anyone else. Make sure the letter is addressed specifically for your HR dept. I'm not sure how getting on short term disability works. I know a couple of people who have done it and they had some trouble getting it set up. If you can't work for weeks at a time you might want to talk to you therapist about going into a partial hospitalization program. If you don't know what that is its basically a program you go to four or five days out of the week for four to six hours. It's a group setting where you get therapy and psychological education and skill training. It's basically for when people are in crisis and are having trouble functioning. It's a way to get intensive help and it keeps a lot of people out of the hospital. The program I was in had a woman who specifically helped people with their insurance and setting up disability programs through their work. I think this would be good for you because it would help you explain to your manager what kind of timeframe you need to get better. Partial programs last four to six weeks. This might be good because it sounds like your manager has no idea when or if you will be coming back. By setting this up hopefully it will show her not only are you seriously ill right now but you have a plan to get better and to return to work. I just completed my third partial program, it was worth it. Let me know what you think, hope you feel a little better soon.