I left work in an ambulance, thanks to my boss

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Christopher Banks • 5 Comments

Pete started his career in IT at 22, at a company he loved, with a culture and colleagues that inspired. He left four years later in an ambulance. The incident was the horrific endgame in an escalating maelstrom of workplace bullying by two of his supervisors, who decided to take the company’s less-than-stellar performance in the marketplace out on their employees. Continue reading »

anxiety / bullying / depression / employment / flourishing / gay / recovery / self-stigma / violence / wellbeing

Trading school for McDonald’s to escape the bullies

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Christopher Banks • 4 Comments

14-year-old James Hope first became aware that his bullying was getting out of his control when a pair of scissors and a compass came flying towards his head in the middle of class. The violence was the culmination of several years worth of psychological bullying that systematically tore him apart on every aspect of his personality, looks and mannerisms. Continue reading »

anxiety / bullying / employment / gay / suicide

Bullies are not like sandpaper, Chris Colfer

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Christopher Banks • 18 Comments

The worst part of Chris Colfer’s attributed platitude about bullying and sandpaper is the assumption that bullying trauma is inherently a learning experience, that we should eventually be thankful to the people who put us through such mental torture. The time for “it gets better” is over. It needs to be better right now, because now is all that matters. Continue reading »

bipolar / discrimination / employment / mental illness

Security guard sacked over bipolar

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Christopher Banks • 9 Comments

How safe are you in your job if you’ve failed to disclose your mental illness to your employer? If you end up getting sacked for taking a sick day, you too could be the architect of your own misfortune. Continue reading »

employment / politics

I will do anything for a fiverr

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Christopher Banks • Leave a comment

I used to write radio jingles for a living. Yes, I know you’d stab me in both eyes with a blunt compass if I were in front of you right now, but let’s just say I was young, I didn’t know what I was doing, and I needed the money. The career was relatively short-lived, … Continue reading »

bereavement / bipolar / employment / recovery / wellbeing

The good boss

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Christopher Banks • 6 Comments

Having been in employment situations before where my mental illness has been used against me, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about how I might be treated in a new job in a strange land. We’ve recently been through a period of intense work for a very small team, and in the … Continue reading »

employment / flourishing / wellbeing

Spare a thought for the turd burglar

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Christopher Banks • 1 Comment

Walking past a house one morning recently, a friend of mine was disturbed to hear retching coming from inside the dwelling. It was only then that she noticed the van parked kerbside, bearing the legend: “The Horrible Job Company”. When I told people about this, my friend Drew let me know about a van he … Continue reading »

anxiety / employment / friends and family / manic phases / mental illness / self-stigma / wellbeing

Do you have to do that right now?

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Christopher Banks • 2 Comments

Thomas Jefferson once said – never put off till tomorrow what can be done today, thus launching centuries of stress-filled freakouts. I’ve just been reflecting on my workload for the past eighteen months, and when I look at the list of completed tasks I’m a little surprised my brain still works at all (don’t say … Continue reading »

anxiety / books / employment / friends and family / gay / psychology / relationships / self-stigma / wellbeing

Communication and trust: 6 questions you should ask yourself

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Christopher Banks • 2 Comments

Good communication is the key to everything in life, and in the workplace it can make the difference between a place you’re happy turning up to in the morning – and a toxic cesspit of depression and resentment. Carrying on from an earlier post on workplace wellbeing that took a leaf from the pages of the … Continue reading »

bullying / discrimination / employment / gay / homophobia / mental illness / politics

Fire at will: is your job at risk?

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Christopher Banks • 4 Comments

In 1993, New Zealand turned a big corner in introducing the Human Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and disability (which includes HIV status and mental illness). But in 2009, the current government introduced a “fire at will” probation law that allowed employers to sidestep the Human Rights Act. How … Continue reading »

Bipolar Bear

Health, humour and advice for gay and bisexual men with experience of mental illness

Category Archives: employment