Mental health is, unfortunately, not taken very seriously by many companies. I've never seen a benefits package that included therapy or coaching of any kind. We're put under a lot of stress at times (which can be exacerbated by existing mental conditions) and that can seriously affect our health. I suspect mental breakdowns happen more often than they are reported. It's not taken seriously and it's also something people prefer to sweep under the rug.
Bad managers don't care how much you work. A friend of mine works in tele-completions for the health insurance industry. He has the highest rate of completions per day than anyone else in his unit for nearly four years running. He has been overlooked for every promotion and opportunity to move to a better position. The managers don't want him to leave the unit because their numbers will go significantly down if he does.
I've worked an incredible amount of overtime for employers early on in my career. I wanted to show them that I could play the game, get things done, and save the day. I thought that it would pay off. It never did.
So I stopped doing it.
I knew that the calls would just keep coming. I knew that there was no incentive to let me have time off. I knew that I would never be compensated in any way for all that effort if someone higher up could help it. As long as I was convinced that was the way the world worked, they were getting cheap labour and profiting while I was being driven into the ground and made miserable.
You have to make the life that you want. Never let anyone else be in control of you. They have no authority to make you come into work in the middle of the night or stay at work for thirty-six hours straight. I think it's a terrible shame that some people think they have some sort of power to compel others to do this for them. And it often leads to tragedies like the one the OP described.
As you and a friend found out, the problem with putting that much extra effort (especially in 'concave' work) is that a promotion would usually just remove you from the work pool, leading to the ironic effect that the harder you work, the more likely you will limit your chances of moving up.
I've never worked in the Valley, but with one possible exception (I never tried to take advantage while I was there) every job I've had has had some form of Employee Assistance Program that covered things like counseling for workplace-related stress or work-life balance. It wasn't a comprehensive program (that was covered mostly by health insurance) but in most cases it would cover approximately six visits- free of charge- and not on your health insurance .
I did find that most of my co-workers were not aware of such programs, so if you feel like you could benefit from such a program, please contact your HR department. It's quite possible you already have such a program available to you and taking advantage could help out quite a bit if you are stressed.
Bad managers don't care how much you work. A friend of mine works in tele-completions for the health insurance industry. He has the highest rate of completions per day than anyone else in his unit for nearly four years running. He has been overlooked for every promotion and opportunity to move to a better position. The managers don't want him to leave the unit because their numbers will go significantly down if he does.
I've worked an incredible amount of overtime for employers early on in my career. I wanted to show them that I could play the game, get things done, and save the day. I thought that it would pay off. It never did.
So I stopped doing it.
I knew that the calls would just keep coming. I knew that there was no incentive to let me have time off. I knew that I would never be compensated in any way for all that effort if someone higher up could help it. As long as I was convinced that was the way the world worked, they were getting cheap labour and profiting while I was being driven into the ground and made miserable.
You have to make the life that you want. Never let anyone else be in control of you. They have no authority to make you come into work in the middle of the night or stay at work for thirty-six hours straight. I think it's a terrible shame that some people think they have some sort of power to compel others to do this for them. And it often leads to tragedies like the one the OP described.