Disclosing your mental wellbeing in job interviews

[Anele]

HI, I'm new here. I resigned from a long-held job last year after a traumatic event involving a married work colleague.I shouldn't have resigned but i couldn't mentally cope at all and had a breakdown. Now i am in a job that is totally wrong for me (i took the first job that came along) and i'm so incredibly depressed. i want to leave now and take some "me" time while looking for something new. My issue is i don't know what to say in interviews when people asked why i left my old job (i am legally not allowed to mention anything that happened) and now if i leave this one i'll just look like someone who cannot cope with life, despite having a solid 20 years of relatively stable employment previously. i guess my question is, what experience have people had when disclosing in an interview that you've just had a really tough time but you're now in a good place etc. How do you convince an employer that you had depression, anxiety, trauma but now you're good and they can be confident in taking you on? has anyone had any positive or negative experiences with this?

thanks in advance for any advice

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Anele,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for your post.

Honestly to answer your question, you don't have to tell them.

I have been both an interviewee and an interviewer and we understand that sometimes there are gaps in resumes for personal reasons; whether that's 6 months or 6 years. Whether the gaps are because of mental illness, physical illness, caring for family or anything in between - they happen and more often then not, they're out of our control.

Although the time off may have felt significantly long, in the scheme of things and your 20 years of experience, it's not a long time. Try to remember that your resume gets you to the interview. That means that for whatever reason, they've looked past that time and can see that your skills fit the job. The interview then becomes about you as a person and how well you might fit in the company.

It may help to prepare yourself for such a question such as "I really enjoyed my position with the company and got a lot of experience doing x, y and z. Due to circumstances beyond my control I had to leave and take some personal time off but the issue is resolved now". There is no need for you to elaborate on this if you don't want to.

Remember to keep circling back to those skills that you can bring. The good thing is that it's not a long time so all your work policies/procedures will most likely be very similar and you'll most likely be able to slide right in.

Hope this helps,

[Mathy]

Hi Adele and welcome to the BB forum 🙂

Romantic_thi3f has great suggestions about dealing with that gap in your employment.

You are not obliged to declare your mental health status when applying/interviewing for a job.

I live with anxiety/depression and PTSD, all acquired before my present job. I also had an employment gap, because I worked for myself for 2 years.

I did not disclose my MH status at any stage in the process of acquiring my job - it’s none of their business, and they’re not allowed to ask or discriminate against you anyway.

Once I started my job, and made some friends, I did disclose to a couple of friends that I had issues with thunderstorms and might panic - they were great. Knowing that I had their support reduced my anxiety about thunderstorms in strange places, and all was good. You’ll be surprised at how many people you work with have either MH issues themselves, or someone in their family - it’s a great source of support and networking.

Nearly 2 years ago, I had issues at work that arose due to an inappropriate suspension - which sent me into a tailspin and I walked out. As a result of sorting this mess out, I did disclose my MH status. However, I only did so, because my employer had behaved badly. It’s wise to accept your “stuff”, but when employer’s bad practices affect you, then that is the time to disclose your position.

After all, if an individual is on top of their mental health, and doing the right things, they are accepting their MH status. If your employer has leadership who start behaving badly (that is, outside OHS guidelines) - they are not treating anyone correctly, and if that impacts on you, then that’s the time to disclose. Doesn’t have to be a WorkCover issue (unless it’s really serious), but often that disclosure is enough to stop most poor leadership in their tracks ......

BECAUSE, once they’ve behaved badly any you say something, you are actually in a much safer place.

I hope this makes sense, I’d be very happy to answer questions, cheers M 🙂

[blondguy]

Hello Anele

Thankyou for having the courage to post especially going through this difficult time. I understand where you are coming from as I am ex corporate/management with anxiety/depression....it was awful....ugh!

Until employers make an attempt to dump the stigma associated with mental health and place our health before their profits I would not disclose my mental health status.

Romantic and Mathy have also spoken from experience above too!

Your thread is an excellent one. It is open for you to continue the discussion if you wish too....You are more than welcome to post back as many times as you wish....with any questions or comments you have

My kind thoughts

Paul