I can’t quite remember how it all happened. I was working one day and soon thereafter I was in the mental health ward of a hospital being told, quite frankly, that I had bipolar 1. I was immediately on FMLA, followed by Short-term Disability, followed eventually by full Disability. Before the Short-term Disability ended, I did return to work, but that didn’t last.
I’ve spoken to my therapist about this and she needs time to go back in her notes to understand the how and why I took that initial FMLA.
It’s not like this type of behavior hasn’t happened before either. Before I randomly moved across the coast, I worked for a company that was well known, but I didn’t care for the culture. I asked my manager to set up a meet with the CTO (it was a pretty flat structure), so that I could get an understanding of expectations and full needs of the organization. Later, I was told by my manager that the CTO would be busy in a meeting at my requested time. When that time came, I saw him playing ping-pong, seemingly not an important meeting. I walked with my company issued laptop to the HR person immediately and left. I think I spent that summer in a deep depression and I didn’t have a job and wasn’t even looking (I was fortunate enough to have financial support to do this; nowadays I get by on SSDI).
I’ve long lived by the mantra that “work hard, play hard” is not a balanced equation. I believe it most certainly applies here.
Grief and how it all gets started. Remember that it’s not your fault. Life happens.
Sometimes HR can actually be your friend.