If you’re a person in recovery from an illness like bipolar you’ve probably heard the phrase “meaningful work” and know it’s considered to be a cornerstone of wellness. Like many of you (I read your blogs too) I’ve had a really hard time keeping jobs over the years. Partly that’s the illness (I’ve impulsively/stupidly quit jobs when manic more than once, and depression has led to poor performance that led to dismissal) and of course there’s rampant employer stigma and glass ceilings. But I wonder if the wellness movement itself is giving false hope?
For example, there’s The Center for Reintegration, which operates clubhouses and the annual Lilly Reintegration Awards (nominations due by June 29). The site has advice like, “Make a list of your best skills and traits (’dependable’, ‘always punctual’, etc.) for use in a job interview.” I don’t know about you, but it’s *because* I’m totally undependable that I’m not working full time anymore.
I’ve been to a clubhouse, I’ve been to a job rehab firm, I’ve been to a charity, and the best they’ve had to offer was rewriting my resume and telling me to look for casual work in retail. As if I could keep to the schedule of a crappy minimum wage job any easier than I could in my former (much better!) career. As if it’s okay to not show up when all they want from you is face time wearing a smock and a fake smile. As if I wouldn’t lose a job like that too. And how is crushing my self-worth supposed to lead to meaningful work? How are they defining meaningful?
The key, the absolute essential thing for me, is an understanding employer and the flexibility to take time off. Writing is a good option because I can work from home and nobody’s going to get upset about long lines at the checkout if I don’t show up one day. PsychCentral is ideal, absolutely wonderful. But there aren’t many places like this. Instead of telling people to go fishing for work in the general job market, it’d be more useful if rehabbers cultivated databases and relationships with employers predisposed to non-discrimination.
Sorry to be so skeptical and negative. Lately I’ve noticed a growing number of people who are professionally ill, paid for speaking engagements and articles about how sick they used to be and how life is so rewarding now that they’re on lithium or whatever. The Reintegration Awards honor them; “The achievements of people living with severe mental illness who give hope to others facing similar challenges.” Obviously, I’m not in the running. I was offered cashier training but ended up back in the hospital instead.
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7 Comments to
“Meaningful Work”
This is the precise reason alot of those suffering from a mental illness—end up working in the mental health field—myself included. But that doesn’t mean that the employer—or coworkers are any more understanding—at least mine aren’t.
Chris - you made my day! i’m probably about to be let go from a job. i had a really, really bad week and didn’t go to work (…seems employers frown on that).
The job before that i was off my meds and abruptly quit…well, it was either that or drop an elephant on my boss’ head!
i fear i will soon don the smock as i’m running out of good excuses as to why i left my previous job. It reminds me of my school days…the dog ate my homework, aliens abducted me, i got hit on the head and have amnesia and forgot the assignment…
oh well…just wanted you to know i liked your post…and if you need an assistant, i just happen to know of someone who may be finding herself without a job - just kidding…well, maybe not…
I can’t be in full time work because I need a lot of time on my own and I can’t work part time because I’d be worse off. People in government departments have no idea of the amount of strain that working 9-5 can put on someone who is depressed or is just a bit different to others. I’ve been told I don’t have clinical depression, but I do have dysthmia so I’m not sure where I stand in relation to new UK government policies to get lots of mentally ill people into work.
Thank you SO much for writing this! I’ve been to mandatory vocational rehabilitation and job counseling when I’ve been through unemployment, and it just drives me nuts. I don’t need to have my Myers-Briggs personality type identified, or find a different “calling.” I’m no longer able to be organized, or reliable, or communicate well, and basically no employer wants to hire someone like me no matter what field we’re talking about! And I have a law degree! So, meaningful work? Give me a break. It all boils down to finding the right person who is willing to give me a chance. And that can’t be done through a “program.”
Thanks for speaking the truth!
Wow, thanks everybody! I’m glad I’m not the only one. 
I worked as an LPN for over 20 years, then tried to off myself, and was fired from the hospital I worked at, banned from all affiliated hospitals (this is because they found out I was BP and had prior hospitalizations I never told them about), and was immediately suspended for 2 years. I just recently, 7 years later of trying to get off this horrid disability, tried to get license back. I read in the news of an RN who worked at one hospital, was stealing drugs and acting high and bizarre and called on the carpet when she couldn’t acccount for the missing meds, and she left. She then went to another hospital and kept up her behavior. Yet she got HELP!! She was taking care of people while high on drugs,still is, and works in an ER though she can’t pass meds yet, but she didn’t lose everything like I did. If I was depressed or high (which just meant for me very busy and active and on the go constantly), I lose everything. Well, they made it totally impossible for me to get my license back. I do believe I’d call this discrimination, and man, try to find a lawyer by telling them you’re BP and you’re trying to fight the Board of Nursing. Its a now win situation. pat
But for me the meaningful part of work is how I define it. The work I love are things that are challenging and scary. I hate to endorse religious ideation, but I have found meaning by doing the work that the Holy Spirit leads me to. Of course what is most “meaningful” in a concrete and tangible way is the work I get paid for, my job. I make a distinction between a job and work. I am blessed that more and more of what I get paid for is the stuff I am compelled to do. I see this as evidence of following the faith that my father taught me to follow.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 5 Jul 2007
