OPINION:
There’s this story that’s been going around the media for a few days now that paints a picture of a sympathetic boss gently cheering on his absent employee for letting him know she’s missing work due to “focus” on her “mental health.”
Let’s just nip this crazy in the bud. This is a mark of America’s wussification — nothing to cheer.
Taking a day off because you’re feeling depressed or anxious or otherwise unhappy and distressed is the stuff of Millennial Madness.
Suck it up. Go to work. And do what the rest of us do when we don’t feel like going to work — go.
Here’s the gist of the story the left’s been lapping around liberal circles, as if a good thing: A woman named Madalyn Parker sent a message to her team to say she was taking off a couple days to work on her mental health.
“I’m taking today and tomorrow to focus on my mental health,” she wrote, CBS reported. “Hopefully, I’ll be back nxt week refreshed and back to 100 percent.”
Her web developing company CEO, Ben Congleton, read the message.
And he wrote back: “Hey Madalyn, I just wanted to personally thank you for sending emails like this. Every time you do, I use it as a reminder of the importance of using sick days for mental health — I can’t believe this is not standard practice at all organizations. You are an example to us all, and help cut through the stigma so we can all bring our whole selves to work.”
Oh puh-leeze. Talk about a gag me moment.
Parker said his message brought tears to her eyes, and she asked for permission to post his reply on social media. And voila, a cause celebre was born — this one, patting those with mental illnesses on the head that it’s A-OK, they don’t have to hide any longer, that what the heck, they don’t even have to go to work any longer, if they’re feeling blue.
What a sad moment for America. Just think back on the generation upon generation of hard workers who braved the likes of the Depression and meager work opportunities and conditions to take whatever jobs were offered — and then think of the plight of Parker, who’s feeling a little down in the dumps and needs a day or two to nap it off, or do some therapeutic ceramic-making. And, oddly enough, who has to share that very private personal health information with work colleagues — instead of, once again, keeping it private.
Talk about the wussification of America.
Here, take a memo.
If you’re that down and need personal time to deal with your mental health, for goodness sake, just call in a sick day. No need to explain. And certainly, no need to take to social media to applaud how everybody, including your boss, thinks you’re great for speaking so openly about your mental disorder. All this open embrace of weakness is just making the American work force look bad.
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