I'm looking for a job but one thing always bothers me... should I tell a potential employer about my depression? Some companies will give accommodations to those with "disabilities" including mental illness and profess to be equal opportunity employers, but I worry that if they knew about my depression up front that they may not hire me.

I'm wondering if other people feel the need to hide their mood disorders from employers (current or potential) as well as co-workers due to fear of being discriminated against because of stigma.

Also, I have some fairly big gaps in my resume from times I was too depressed to go to school or work. If I don't tell potential employers the "real" reason for these gaps, what should I say?

Hello nddn,

I know what you are saying. I was in that position one time. You want to be honest and also have them more understanding of your condition if you should have some lapses, but you dont want them to use another excuse for not hiring you and it really being that you have depression.

Well, I didnt tell my employer. They hired me. Down the road, my supervisor was talking about a salesman who was Bi-Polar and joked about how "he must not be taking his meds today". He laughed and thought the guy was whacko. I just sat there thinking - if you only knew, lol. I did tell a co-worker but she had been a good friend before I got the job and I could trust her.

So, in my opinion, I would say, dont tell them. If you start experiencing problems with your depression where you need time off, then maybe you can mention it but let them know it is not a regular thing and you are taking something for it. At that time, they might tell you about an in-house counselor you are entitled to (free).

Good Luck to you!! And I hope you get the job!!!

Gentle Sun

In the US there are very strick legal guidelines as to what the empoyer can ask about your health.

Whether they hire you has no bearing on your physical or mental health.

All that the employer can ask must be related to your ability to do the job. That is all.

The discrimination laws are a mine field for the businessman. They are better off not knowing.

This is because if they do and they don't hire you then you could potentially sue them on the basis that you were capable of doing the job and they chose someone else due to your handicap.

Dusty

This post has been edited by DUSTYROAD: Apr 23 2008, 09:50 AM

While what you say is true, Dusty, it is near impossible to prove that an employer did not hire someone due to their disclosure of a mental illness. It is also near impossible to prove that they terminated an employee due to their disclosure of a mental illness. Especially today, in the current rough economy and employer's job market. Employer's seeking employees are literally flooded with resumes and applications. If an applicant discloses a disability of any kind, and suspects they are picked over due to their disability, the employer can easily say that they chose someone on the basis of better qualifications or better interview presentation.

I do not disclose my mental illness. It is tough enough to get a job without adding to the difficulty.

Yea, I won't be telling anyone in an interview about my depression.

I just have no idea what to say if they ask about the 4 year gap in my work experience which cannot be explained by the fact that I was in school since I've only completely 3.5 courses and am still considered a "first year" student so I am nowhere near being done the 4 year degree.

i told my boss about my depression when it started to affect my work, that way she knew that it wasnt just that i am crap at my job but that i do have a problem and she understood

hi i hope im doing this right as i am new to this forum - i am also signed off from work at the moment with depression and am also wondering whether to mention it to any future employers. I also find it hard to cover the gaps in my CV and this just adds to the worry about future interviews - it becomes a vicious circle.

hell no. i would never tell my employer about my bipolar.

i've disclosed in the past, when i needed more than a month off for a serious episode, and got fired for mysterious reasons, despite having excellent job reviews.

now my policy is not to tell...

however, i'm in the position now where i do need accommodations. what do i do? i need to figure it out in light of all i know about how employers treat people with disabilities.

it's hard to employ people with MI, i know that. however, we're sometimes the most creative and hardworking people there are! they should look at us differently- as assets and not a burden.

I had to put "After working there a while." The only reason I had to was because of an insurance change and all of us employees had to disclose any prescriptions we'd had in the past 5 years.

Hi
I suffer from Bi-polar and am currently in a four year long depression, with the last two being particularly severe, after coming out of at least two years of undiagnosed AD induced Hypomania prior to that. Needless to say they last few years have been hellish.
In my previous job I did not tell my employer at all (and to say I dont think they would have been very understanding is an understatement) as my bouts of moderate depression prior to this were managable and did not affect my abiltity to work. However during my time there I finally started taking AD's regularly and unfortunately developed a very nasty case of hypomania as a result and everything started going haywire. They made me act very strangely and out of character, just plain ol weird, ie not turning up to work for no apparent reason, chronically late etc. I had been there for seven years and I was a very good employee and I just think they had no idea what was going on with me (and neither did I), but due to my previously very good track record I somehow managed to get away with it with a warning (I was lucky I wasnt fired). I found a new job in the creative field which I had been looking for for a while and I left that work place abruptly and on pretty poor terms (again the hypomania) and started my new job.
In this cross over period between jobs I dropped into a very nasty depression with all the hypomanic symptoms still occuring and unfortunately all this continued in my new job (not a great way to start) and I was about to get a written warning within the first few months of my employment. It was at this point that I broke down and told them about my depression and they were actually really sympathetic. They arranged for me to get some emergency psychiatric help that day, and then were very understanding when I needed to go on sickness benefits for three months. They kept my job open for me and have continued to very very understanding every since. They are great if I need to take days of work, I recently had a couple of bad days and my boss gave me the whole week off. I count myself as extremely, extremely lucky to have ended up with such an understanding employer, and I work especially hard to keep it all together there and I am doing very well there despite crippling depression. Especially after reading some of the terrible stories of bad treatment people have received I know I have it great. Being a creative job I think that depressive artistic types are par for the course!!
In terms of telling your employer I have experienced both the need to not tell and the experience of being truthful about my condition and having it work out well. I really think you need to play it by ear, there is still so much stigma and discrimination out there (even in our enlightened age where depression as an illness is highly visible compared to previous decades) and people (employers are just people too) can be cruel and have no understanding, so it really depends alot on the person hiring you I think. It's interesting to see that the majority of the posts indicate people are keeping it to themselves, which I guess just goes to show the level of stigmatization people feel there is connected to their mental health problems.
Good luck to the job seekers! Hopefully you will find a sympathetic employer and remember there are laws out there to protect you like anyone else with an illness.

I feel like I am pretty open about what I am going through. In other words, if people ask about it... I don't lie, but I don't necessarily bring it up in conversations with people. While in college, I have had ok experiences with people accepting my depression and who I am as a person (I went to a small liberal arts college where a lot of people were dealing with similar issues).
Even though some people have earned my trust, I don't feel like I would ever bring it up at work... I feel that if my employer was to ever know about my issues that it would compromise how he or she felt about me and they would question whether or not I would be able to do my job effectively. I don't want to have people constantly thinking that if they do or say something wrong that I am going to have a melt down... And especially since I have my degree in education, people will question what I am doing in the classroom and how I will interact with the children.