Should You Hire a Person With a Mental Illness

Should You Hire a Person With a Mental Illness

The case with Bipolar Disorder

Human resources staff have a lot of decisions to make. Naturally, they go through thousands of resumes on a daily basiss, looking for the perfect resume. From a neuroscience perspective, decision-making neural correlates center on the frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of excetutive function. Executive function is everything to do with decision-making, planning, organizing and other personality traits. Thus, to make a long story short, a recruiter is going through a multitude of CVs and resumes, some of them of qualified persons, others not. Of course, first the HR recruiters set aside all the unqualified resumes, of which there are plenty.

Actually, you might be surprised by the amount of unqualified or even unsolicited resumes recruiters and employers recieve for every job posting! For example, a friend of mine posted for a position to fill as professional nurse in a private drug rehabilitation clinic, and received hundrerds of CVs daily, some of waitresses and accountants! Why? No one knows. Maybe people don’t always read the job requirements and qualifications sought by the employer. Indeed, it is imperative to carefully screen out job postings and to honestly verify if one’s qualifications fit the job description. But I digress…

Bipolar Disorder: An artist’s conception. Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

So, what do hiring professionals think about hiring mentally unfit people? First of all, they might not know. Actually, they do not know, in most cases. Most people will not write “have a clinical illness” on their resume, obviously. But people with a mental illness have a lot to offer, and it would be wrong to judge them based on their disorder and forego the abilities, talents and gifts they have to contribute in the workplace.

But to examine the situation, let’s first explain what a mental illness could be; for example, Bipolar Disorder. So what is Bipolar Disorder? Bipolar illness is a very serious mental disorder which could be briefly categorized (in layman’s terms) as a sort of a mix between schizophrenia (a milder version) and depression. The disorder is characterized by severe jumps and swings in mood, called mania, hypomania, depressive states or mixed states. Family and friends may see that there is something wrong with the person, but for the person suffering from Bipolar Disorder, everything is normal and fits perfectly fine with the reality their brain constructs.

More often than not, BD starts in early to late teenage years, severly impacts all areas of life, including occupational, vocational, academic and social areas, and also isolates the individual from his or her surroundings. All the while, the individual with the illness lives in their own reality, a matter deserving compassion, and promptly necessitating professional mental, psychiatric help. If you or someone you know suffers from BD, contacting a licensed psychiatrist may be the best solution. After all, people with BD can go on living healthy, productive lives with the professional, psychiatric help they so desperately (or subconsciuously) need.