Corporate mental health support is just for show!
I work in a private bank which comes under the top 5 banks. A few months ago, I was diagnosed with depression. Both HR and my Manager are fully aware of my condition. I have shared all my medical documents with them and even shared my therapist’s number when asked.
I take regular therapy sessions and medicines. Since in banking the 2nd and 4th Saturdays are holidays, my therapist and I fixed Saturdays for my sessions. On 1st and 3rd Saturdays, I inform my Manager beforehand and leave a little early for my sessions, which was already approved by both HR and my Manager.
Recently, my condition got worse, and my doctor increased my medicine dosage and advised me to take 10 days rest. Even after that, I continued coming to office because I had already taken many leaves earlier when I was diagnosed, and there is a lot of pending work.
Due to the heavy medication, there were 2–3 times when I could not wake up in the morning and missed office because the medicines made me extremely drowsy. Sometimes I woke up around 3 PM because of the effect of the medicines.
Yesterday (Friday), I requested my Manager to allow me to leave a little early because I urgently had to collect my prescription medicines and attend a therapy session before going home this weekend to meet my grandfather, who recently underwent surgery. But he directly denied my request and told me to first complete the work and take customer consent before leaving.
At the same time, there was confusion regarding a customer’s rate of interest. My Manager had discussed a lower rate with the customer but never informed me about it. I processed the case based on the rate that was officially told to me. Later, he started blaming and shouting at me for charging the higher rate. When I explained that nobody informed me about the revised rate, I called the customer and even the customer confirmed that the discussion about the lower rate happened directly with my Manager.
Because of all this confusion and pressure, I could not collect my prescription medicines. Now I have to miss around 3 days of medication, even though I am not allowed to skip even a single dose.
The worst part is that I am the one who will suffer mentally and physically because of this. HR had already approved 7–8 days leave for me, but still I kept coming to office because there is a lot of pending work. Despite knowing my condition and situation, no understanding or support was shown.
And here I am writing this at 5 AM because I could not sleep after missing my medicines.
**TL;DR:**
I work in a top private bank and am undergoing treatment for depression, which both HR and my Manager know about. Despite approved leave and worsening health, I continued working because of pending work. Yesterday, my Manager denied my request to leave early for my therapy session and medicine refill, which caused me to miss essential medication. I was also blamed for a customer issue that was never properly communicated to me. The whole situation has severely affected my mental health.