As more workers take multi-month mental health leave, employers report 'buyer's remorse'

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country.
I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. Best case scenario, every employer wants healthy employees with a fantastic work-life balance. But what happens when people take so much time off to take care of themselves that everyone else suffers? Here's KCBS in the Bay Area.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:23)
More and more people are using leave of absences from work for mental health reasons, and those absences are causing some workplace strain. Bloomberg's Taylor Nicole Rogers, thank you so much for being with us. What's going on here?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (0:35)
Well, after the pandemic, a lot of companies spent time educating their staff about all of the different things they could do to take care of their mental health. And it seems like now they have some buyer's remorse after there has been a huge spike in the number of people that are taking leaves of absences of eight to 12 weeks to treat things like anxiety or depression.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:56)
Now, tell me who's taking these. Is there an age disparity when it comes to employees looking up for mental health benefits, or is it across the board?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (1:04)
It is across the board. And what I think is surprising to bosses right now is that it is people who seemed to be OK are calling out and saying, I need a month or two off.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:16)
And this is under FMLA or or not?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (1:21)
It is FMLA. The Family Medical Leave Act is a law that we typically think of being for parental leave or medical leave for something like cancer. But more people are using it to take care of their mental health. And unlike those other situations, they don't often give their bosses a few weeks of heads up.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:45)
OK, now FMLA, I'm familiar with having taken it myself.
You have to have a doctor's note in many cases. So are these people getting a doctor's note to be able to take this mental health leave?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (1:59)
They are. And I did speak to a therapist who said that everyone that has asked her for one definitely needed it. But employers are skeptical because there are telemedicine services that offer these notes for $49 and you can get them on a Zoom call in less than a day.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:18)
OK, so is it being abused?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (2:21)
That is an open question. A lot of experts say it is not. But bosses are skeptical. There have been some TikTok videos floating around where people are saying, take your FMLA time and go on vacation. Or if you hate your job, file for FMLA and then just use that four or six or eight weeks to search for a new one.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:43)
So I do know I can think of in past cases of some people who have used FMLA that have had substance abuse, like for rehab, I've heard of that.

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (2:53)
Absolutely.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:54)
And so there's a difference between that and someone who needs, say, cognitive behavioral therapy. So are you saying that people are probably using it for some cognitive behavioral therapy that could be done or dealt with on their own time?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (3:10)
The law actually does not say anything about how you have to use the time off. So there are people who are using it for the type of therapy appointments that other people squeeze in before or after work. And there are other people who say that they're burnt out and they need to take time to travel.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:27)
So how are companies handling the resource gap?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (3:29)
That is something that they're still trying to figure out. Some companies are contracting with other companies that will kind of evaluate requests and try to direct workers to other resources, like cognitive behavioral therapy, like support groups if they're dealing with grief and things like that. And other companies are going all in on mental health resources in the office to try to catch these problems before they get to that point. So we're seeing a lot more companies bring therapists on staff and ready to meet with workers throughout the day or investing in apps that allow you to get therapy by text message or meditation apps, things like that.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:09)
Can you quantify the increase that's been seen?

**Taylor Nicole Rogers** (4:13)
Yes. There was a survey by the law firm, Littler Biddelson, and they found that 67 percent of employers said that they had an increase in the number of requests for leaves of absence or other accommodations for mental health just last year.