I have a bit of a conundrum. I have had an employee for close to 2 and a half years. He had been what any boss could want in an employee. He has been on top of everything. He has done everything I ask him to and then some. This employee is also a schizophrenic and has a slew of other mental health problems. I knew this going in as we are also friends and he lives on my property,Friends until recently. I’m unsure what has happened but as of late his mental health has been rapidly declining. Such as he use to show up at the store early, clean without being asked, give me contact info for vendors. Now the only things I have him do are clean and file. All the thing he use to do before, he started not doing or doing a very poor job. He also has completely made it to where I had to redo inventory because it was so wrong. I have lost money sleep clients and sanity because of this drastic change. But one of the reasons that I hired him was because not alot of people would because of mental heath issues. I’m now at a point that I understand that people have challenges and I feel guilty at the thought of firing him because where else will he go. I’m the only job in the area that would hire him give him the breaks he needs and be as patience as I have been. And I know this for a fact I’m the only job he’s had that has accommodated him. I’m at a place where I have given him several chances to fix and adjust and he has not done so consistently. He does better for a few days or matey even a few days but always ends up back in the same place. So now I’m in this place where he’s unpleasant to be around and I don’t know if I would be doing the right thing by firing him. I don’t what to be unethical or a shitty person by firing him. Would I be the asshole if I fired him?
Mental health, particularly a psychosis like schizophrenia, is not like many chronic physical issues in that once you reach an optimal pharmacological threshold that it’s well managed for years with minimal symptoms.
There are peaks and troughs to the symptoms experienced by the individual and often prescribers will have to adjust dosages or add medications to their regimens.
My advice is this: If he’s a valuable resource and employee when his symptoms are well managed I’d suggest giving his prescriber and medication time to adjust. Neuro chemical changes in the brain can take months to produce positive impacts as neuro plasticity is a months-long process.
Give him time. Don’t fire him. Productivity is important yes humanity has a place in business too.