ABSTRACT
Depression doesn’t defi ne who you are. You are a person coping with an illness. Justin
Here are employees’ views about some possible adjust-
ments-on both sides-to make it easier to accommodate
diversity in the workplace. On the organisation’s side, there
are some general suggestions that can temporarily ease the
load for a valuable employee who has been incapacitated
with a depressive or hypomanic episode. These include:
• restructuring the job-for instance, temporarily
cutting back on minor job duties and assigning ‘fi ll-in’
duties to another employee, with that latter employee
being cut some slack elsewhere
• fl exible scheduling-changing the start or end of the
workday to accommodate side-effects of medication,
scheduling in fl exi-time for medical/psychological
support appointments, allowing specifi c breaks during
the workday, offering part-time work
• fl exible leave-supporting the use of sick leave for
mental health reasons or extending leave without pay
over a hospitalisation or for time off
• supportive modifi cations to the work environment-
as discussed with the affected individual; these might
range from allocating a quieter room for them through
to supplying a non-fl uorescent desk lamp
• providing a mentor-a colleague or manager who is on
the individual’s wavelength who can assist the worker,
maybe structuring the day’s work with them at the
outset and then checking in on how things are going
during the day
• changes in training-allowing extra time and aids to
learn job tasks.1
