TE
科技回声
首页24小时热榜最新最佳问答展示工作
GitHubTwitter
首页

科技回声

基于 Next.js 构建的科技新闻平台,提供全球科技新闻和讨论内容。

GitHubTwitter

首页

首页最新最佳问答展示工作

资源链接

HackerNews API原版 HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 科技回声. 版权所有。

Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?

53 点作者 fadelakin超过 10 年前
So this happened around the middle of October and ever since, I&#x27;ve been trying to process my mind around it. I wrote about my depression and shared it with others. I wrote it as way to sort of come to terms with things and let people know that they aren&#x27;t alone.<p>A couple days after I wrote it, I shared the piece of writing with a couple people on Twitter. I&#x27;m going to guess that my boss must have saw it popup on his timeline which led to me getting a phone call from him. We just talked about it and how I was feeling. He told me to take the next day off. I guess he was trying to be nice and be a good person but the day after the day I was given off, I received another phone call from him. He pretty much said, &quot;I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s best if you come into work. If you have anything of ours, just return them when you feel like it.&quot; aka we&#x27;re letting you go. He reassured me it wasn&#x27;t because of what I wrote over and over again. I, on the other hand, do think I was let go because of what I wrote. I wasn&#x27;t given an explanation as to why I was being let go. I don&#x27;t and didn&#x27;t think of myself as a liability but I guess that&#x27;s how I was viewed.<p>I talked to a couple people about it. Some said he was in his right to let me go, others said it wasn&#x27;t right for me to be let go. I&#x27;m currently on a gap year and all I wanted some work to do and hopefully gain experience from. I can&#x27;t do that and every junior Android developer position I&#x27;ve applied to in Chicago has pretty much turned me down. Chicago doesn&#x27;t have that much junior Android developer positions compared to other cities. I can&#x27;t get the experience I wanted and can&#x27;t earn the money I planned on earning. At this point, I have no idea what to do. I just work on my own small projects day to day. What do you guys think I should do? Do you think my boss was in his right to let me go even though I didn&#x27;t mention anything about the company in my writing?<p>Any help would be appreciated.

17 条评论

neekburm超过 10 年前
I wrote an article about the ADA amendments a few years ago:<p><a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/246397486/The-ADAAA-Congress-Breathes-New-Life-into-the-Americans-with-Disabilities-Act" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scribd.com&#x2F;doc&#x2F;246397486&#x2F;The-ADAAA-Congress-Brea...</a><p>Major depression, or the perception that someone is depressed, is now considered a disability that the ADA applies to.<p>If an employer takes a hostile action (denial of promotion, firing, etc.) against someone based on their disability, the victim can sue the employer.<p>Proving that they fired you because of the article will be an issue, but a skilled disability attorney can probably do that. Presuming that you were otherwise a good employee, it probably won&#x27;t be too hard to prove that the article was the reason. Talk to a disability attorney, or just contact the EEOC.<p><a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/employees/charge.cfm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eeoc.gov&#x2F;employees&#x2F;charge.cfm</a>
评论 #8598400 未加载
ickryricky超过 10 年前
As a person who&#x27;s suffered from depression, and experienced discrimination because of it, I&#x27;d like to encourage you to both sue the shit out of this asshole, and name the company publicly. Don&#x27;t be ashamed of your depression, and don&#x27;t let people like this continue to get away with abusing those who suffer from mental illness.
评论 #8598233 未加载
andymoe超过 10 年前
I think you should talk to a local employment attorney. In the meantime pick yourself up and look for another job... A change of scenery can help too if you are not very tied to your location. Also, I hope you find the help you need. You don&#x27;t have to take it on all by yourself.
stonemetal超过 10 年前
The EEO(Equal Employment Opportunity) laws cover mental health so you would have some legal backing if you want to take that path. Personally I would let it go and keep up the job search, or if you can afford it maybe contribute to an open source project.
DanBC超过 10 年前
You could see a lawyer. Mental illness is one of the &quot;protected characteristics&quot; covered hy US federal law<p>But this advice is easy to give for someone who isn&#x27;t actually in the situation.
sarabmann超过 10 年前
By letting you go, your employer lost a courageous and honest resource so it was not your loss at all.Secondly, I think you don&#x27;t have serious issue as you are in the right framework of mind to confront and identify the problem.<p>Try to take project out of Elance and Odesk and if you think you have real good skills that are not valued in Chicago then move to place where your skill set has value. Valley is extremely good technology cluster but Boston,Austin and Seattle are also not bad.
SSH007超过 10 年前
While you have my sympathies for what you are going through, it really comes off petty when you name your employer. In my experience, there are always two sides to each story. I won&#x27;t even try to speculate why they might have let you go. If they were discriminating against you because of your depression, then there are legal protections that are provided for you. Naming and shaming your ex employers, does nothing but harm to your future prospects. Prospective Employers, if they hear about how quickly you publicly shamed&#x2F;named your employer when you two did not see eye to eye, will be hesitant to hire you. In all honesty, I would not.<p>All We(HNers) have, is your side of the story, there is no defense from the company that let you go. There is very little upside to publicly naming the company, unless you do it in legal proceedings.<p>I&#x27;m not sure if its possible, but I&#x27;d highly recommend you deleting the comments where you named the company, or delete this post. It does nobody any good, especially you. Think about it, what did you gain from naming them. I was with you until I saw that you named the company. Again it comes off petty and childish.<p>You seem fairly young, since you mentioned your experience, so remember that professionalism goes a long way, and also that Life is not fair. Sometimes you&#x27;ll get blamed for something you didn&#x27;t do, other times you&#x27;ll be fired for something shitty like this. Your job is to keep moving ahead all the time, and don&#x27;t go down to the level of jerks and become a jerk yourself. Stand up for yourself, but don&#x27;t talk behind other people&#x27;s back. If they wronged you, then confront them, but give them a chance to defend themselves.<p>Good luck to you.
评论 #8599656 未加载
评论 #8599582 未加载
jaoued超过 10 年前
My advice is you must make contact asap with a lawyer who&#x27;s specialised in Employment Law. He&#x2F;she will be best placed to put things together based on what you have experienced and decide on the best course of action while gauging if there is or not a case of abusive dismissal. Letting you go while knowing you are suffering from depression is a serious offence.
angersock超过 10 年前
Hang in there man. Things get better, even if they seem like they never will. :)<p>Keep working on your hobby projects, maybe go enjoy the parks, and maybe see if there are any little webdev jobs or something available on Craigslist in your area. Worst case, see if anyone is hiring waiters.<p>Don&#x27;t stop reaching out for help, and try not to spend too much time in your own head. Good luck!
dadude超过 10 年前
I would also guess that the reason you were let go had more to do with the admission of addiction history then the depression or the combination of both.<p>I would get some legal counsel and aim for some form of severance in combination with continued health benefits (if you had any) rather then lengthy litigation that will only add to your burden.<p>Good luck on your difficult journey.
fadelakin超过 10 年前
You can read the piece of writing I wrote here: <a href="https://medium.com/@tmidao/confession-55fa5d4a3c0b" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@tmidao&#x2F;confession-55fa5d4a3c0b</a><p>I&#x27;m always happy to clarify on any part that wasn&#x27;t clear or you need more information on.
评论 #8597770 未加载
panjaro超过 10 年前
Call your boss for Dinner at the top floor of a big building, show him the cars running on the street, get around him, give a nice kick. Make sure he screams while falling down, record the clip and post it in Youtube.
clark-kent超过 10 年前
Let me recommend an audio book for you, &quot;The Power of Now&quot; by Eckhart Tolle <a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/Religion-Spirituality/The-Power-of-Now-Audiobook/B002V0PN36" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.audible.com&#x2F;pd&#x2F;Religion-Spirituality&#x2F;The-Power-of...</a>.
adamgray超过 10 年前
There are lots of lawyers in Chicago that would take your case.
_random_超过 10 年前
Name and shame?
评论 #8598230 未加载
paulhauggis超过 10 年前
Everyone seems to love how much power they have with social media. Look at the ex-Mozilla CEO. He was bullied and forced to quit as a result of his beliefs.<p>The flip-side is that business owners can also use this power against you. Be careful what you post on social media, it may come back to get you.
评论 #8599481 未加载
评论 #8598463 未加载
penguindev超过 10 年前
Have you read &quot;mans search for meaning&quot;? That guy lived in a concentration camp, so you probably don&#x27;t have it that bad...<p>Hope you find something better than pills and&#x2F;or paying a shrink for the rest of your life. I know you can.
评论 #8598266 未加载
评论 #8598590 未加载