From our other sites
The story
A post on 5ch’s Newsspeed VIP board describes being ordered onto medical leave the day after submitting a doctor’s note for overwork and depression. The original poster had hoped to stay on the job, but says the paperwork was already moving just one day after reporting the diagnosis. Commenters split between those saying “it’s your own fault for hiding the diagnosis” or “if you’re that unwell, you should take leave,” and others questioning how the process could move so fast and what a normal handover period should actually look like.
What people said
Same here — they recommended leave and now I'm on it too
Actually, I said I wanted to STAY on the job!
The workplace and society keep running fine — my life doesn't
That's the only future I can picture
Haven't slept properly in months.
When I'm awake I don't have to think about work, but the second I fall asleep it all comes flooding back and I can't sleep.
Is that what tonight's going to be like for me?
Actually no — worrying about work has kept me up this whole time.
isn't that basically a disciplinary action?
So is this like being suspended or something?
does any of that ring a bell?
On that front, it rings nothing but bells
I just never reported it.
They asked me, 'So, did the diagnosis ever come back?' so I handed it in (yesterday).
At that point I said I wanted to keep working.
You got diagnosed with overwork and depression and just sat on it? That's rough.
Take the leave, man.
It's not really about 'going easy on me' —
I only told my boss, 'my performance is dropping because of this, but I'll recover before long, so please look the other way for a bit.'
That sounds like some pretty warped thinking.
Is it warped though?
If you don't push yourself in your 20s, when will you?
Your 20s aren't the only time you get to push yourself.
Timing is different for everyone.
And how much you push should depend on the person too — if your body breaks down, you lose more than you ever gained by pushing.
So I really was dead weight after all.
Just getting rid of the nuisance.
So all my effort was wasted on this job?
Even if you were useful, there's no continuity once you break down —
and it'd be illegal for the company to keep working you like that anyway.
Re: #53
Re: #54
Yeah, exactly.
Someone who hasn't delivered results just saying 'I'll do my best' is still in the way, no matter how you slice it.
Makes more sense that those 'your morale is up!' comments were just people humoring you.
Did anyone at the company actually say you were 'in the way'?
But the company decided on its own to put me on leave —
doesn't that basically mean 'you're in the way'?
First off, if there's a doctor's note involved, it's not purely the company's decision.
And nobody said the reason for the leave was that you were 'in the way.'
Can we at least agree on that much as the actual facts?
Even though they'd been giving you extra time ever since you got the diagnosis?
I did collapse, and I was in bad shape for a month or two, sure.
But I only submitted the doctor's note yesterday.
Isn't 'diagnosis yesterday, decision today' way too fast?
That's factoring in that you'd been hiding the diagnosis, though.
If a COVID patient showed up at the office, that'd be a disaster —
a same-day call is completely normal.
Does the leave process usually go this smoothly?
Shouldn't it take longer than that?
Could they just be rushing it because they want me gone?
I know I sound paranoid saying this, but I'm anxious.
Depends on the company, but it's basically same-day, isn't it?
At the very least, deciding and telling the person can happen same-day.
There might be paperwork behind the scenes after that, but that's beside the point here.
Having a senior coworker handle the handover is more the exception — and only if that coworker is also dealing with mental health stuff.
When I collapsed from overwork at my last job,
the handover took about six months,
so I figured that was the going rate.
A company that makes you spend six months handing things over after you collapsed from overwork is insane, I can't even laugh.
Your sense of 'normal' is way off, lol
Man…
you seriously need to rethink how you work.
I know someone who burned out with depression in their 20s, never really got back to working properly, and is still like that now in their 50s.
Yeah, the 'job lottery' is real.
Honestly I keep drawing losers, it's kind of funny at this point.
Job 1: Event company — went bankrupt
Job 2: Tour company — executive scandal & the company wasn't even properly registered
Job 3: IT advertising — 8:30 AM to 2:00 AM shifts
Job 4: Employment/life support services — current job
My career's in shambles and I'm about to hit my late 20s, so if anyone's got a good job to recommend, I'm all ears.
Why not aim to just go back to your current job for now?
It looks relatively decent compared to the others.
And more than anything, you should never make a life-defining decision like switching jobs while you're depressed.
Like you said yourself, your brain's been 'running away with itself' more than usual lately,
so don't make any irreversible decisions right now.
It's luck, so there's not much you can do about it.
What matters isn't finding a 'good company'
but finding a company that's 'right for you.'
But hey, obsessing over the future and spiraling negative is a classic symptom of depression.
So for now, just eat something good and get some sleep.
If you can't sleep, just watch some videos or whatever.
Background and Key Points
The Japanese system behind this thread is 休職 (kyūshoku), employer-mandated medical leave, distinct from the disciplinary suspension some posters suspected. Once a company receives a doctor’s note (診断書) diagnosing an employee as unfit for normal duties, its 安全配慮義務 (duty of care toward employee safety) kicks in: continuing to work someone flagged as impaired exposes the company to liability if their condition worsens. That legal exposure, not sympathy or malice, is usually what makes the process move within a day rather than over weeks. During kyūshoku, employees typically draw on 傷病手当金 (sickness and injury allowance) through their health insurance union, roughly two-thirds of salary for up to 18 months — a safety net that never comes up in the thread despite being central to whether taking leave is financially survivable.
The thread didn’t split over whether depression is real or whether the OP deserved leave — most agreed leave was appropriate. It split over intent: whether same-day action reflects a company mechanically following legal obligation once paperwork exists, or whether it signals the company was already looking for a reason to sideline someone whose output had dropped, feeding into the “exile room” (追い出し部屋) suspicion.
What outside readers are likely to miss is that the OP’s own six-month timeline from a previous job, cited as the “normal” pace, is the outlier, not the standard — most posters treated same-day notification as ordinary once a formal diagnosis is on file, since informal accommodation (going easy on someone without documentation) isn’t something companies are obligated, or often willing, to sustain indefinitely.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Newsspeed VIP) thread “Can’t Hide My Shock at the Sudden Order to Take Medical Leave.”
Leave a Reply