Doctor's leave due to mental health
Hi Monkeys,
As in the title. Has any of you had experience with taking doctor's leave for mental health? I am after first year of IB and feel pretty brunt out, not sure if couple of days off will resolve it. Feels like I would need more time, if possible to recover at all. Doctor suggested I take a longer, few weeks leave.
Have you heard about backlash from taking the sick leave. I am concerned about two things, (1) Being the first one to be cut if there is cuts across the team, (2) Your next potential employer learning about it.
Would appreciate your input. I am based in the UK, if that matters.
Don’t you guys get a lot more vacation time in the UK?
Yes, we do get 20+ days of annual leave. I am trying to use mine.
Point is, what if that period isn't enough for me and I take the doctor's note - wanted to hear about precedents of people doing it.
Worked in a corporate company pre-MBA, not a financial services company/institution. We had an employee that had a serious medical condition that she claimed required a lot of time off due to 'pain.' We did cater to any medical letter she got but it did impact her income (worked less than the required hours some weeks for full time and ran out of PTO). I forget what exactly happened but I think she was "monitored" pretty heavily by management above me when she was working or she was let go. She was an OK performer and I think her multiple medical "excuses" made a lot of upper management evaluate her standing within the department more so than her peers.
Edit: This is in the US, not UK.
If you're in the UK, can't you just use your vacation days?
Have you considered talking to a senior or your staffer about this? When I was interning at a PE fund two years ago, I was in a pretty bad place mentally. Took 3 weeks off and then slowly faded in working from home until I was back in the office full-time. I was very open to my seniors about this (said I lost a close relative and needed time) and they were quite accomodating - granted this wasn't IB and thus smaller team, but still. I would approach them with a clear plan what you want to do, how you plan to recover etc. and ask them if that is fine.
Think about this: When you burn out, you're gone permanently. Given you are a decent performer, they may not want to risk this. I don't think this would backfire as to the 2 points you mentioned.
I haven't done this myself but someone else in my team (senior associate at the time) took about four weeks. The mood in the team was definitely that we'd rather have someone take time off than quit completely. They were a good performer and have been promoted since.
I agree that the usual 1-2 weeks off doesn't make enough of a difference. If it's getting to the stage where a doctor has suggested a longer leave, then please take that advice on board and protect your mental health. I doubt either of the 2 concerns you mentioned would be a true issue but regardless, you need to put yourself first.
Also UK based.
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