A CEO thanked his employee for taking mental health days

Madalyn Parker, an accessibility engineer from Michigan, emailed her team in June 2017 to say she was taking two days off. She did not say she had the flu or a beach booked. She told them plainly she was focusing on her mental health. Parker lives with depression, and she wrote that she hoped to be back the next week refreshed. Her CEO at the time, Ben Congleton of Olark, wrote back within hours. "I just wanted to personally thank you for sending emails like this," he said. "You are an example to us all, and help cut through the stigma so we can all bring our whole selves to work." Parker posted the exchange to Twitter, where it gathered more than 45,000 likes before she made her account private. Congleton later wrote his own reply on Medium. "When an athlete is injured, they sit on the bench and recover," he said. "Let's get rid of the idea that somehow the brain is different."