Every May, Mental Health Awareness Month reminds us that mental health matters as much as physical health – at home, in our communities, and at work. Mental Health Awareness Month exists to chip away at its stigma, but beyond that, this month points to another quiet problem – workers often have strong legal protections around mental health but don’t feel safe using them. One of the clearest examples is mental health leave. Many California workers worry that taking time off to care for their mental health (or a loved one’s) could cost them their job. But can your employer actually do that?
Mental Health Can Be a Protected Disability Under California Law
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) treats many mental health conditions the same way it treats physical disabilities. Conditions like depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and others can qualify, and the condition doesn’t have to be permanent or severe to be covered. If your condition limits a major life activity, like work for example, it generally falls within FEHA’s protections. This means that if you have a qualifying mental health condition, you’re protected from disability discrimination and are entitled to reasonable accommodation from your employer – which can include time off.
So, Can Your Employer Fire You for Taking Mental Health Leave?
Generally, no – not because you took protected mental health leave or requested an accommodation. California law prohibits employers from firing, demoting, or punishing you for exercising those rights. The protection depends on the type of leave, so it helps to understand the two most common situations workers in California face.
Leave for Your Own Mental Health
If you need time off because of your own mental health condition, two protections often apply. Under FEHA, leave can be a reasonable accommodation, and your employer is required to engage in an interactive process with you to identify reasonable accommodations. Also, the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave for a serious health condition, which can include serious mental health conditions. CFRA generally covers you if you’ve worked for your employer for at least 12 months, completed at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave, and your company has five or more employees.
Leave to Care for a Family Member
Mental health doesn’t only affect the person diagnosed with a mental health condition. If a spouse, child, parent, grandparent, sibling, or domestic partner has a serious mental health condition, CFRA also allows eligible workers to take up to 12 weeks of protected leave to care for them. This is a separate right from leave for your own condition, and it exists specifically so workers like you don’t have to choose between their job and showing up for the people you love.
When Is Firing You Unlawful?
The harder question isn’t whether your employer can ever fire you while you’re on leave – it’s whether the firing is because of your leave or your condition. A termination can cross into unlawful territory in several ways:
- Retaliation – If you’re fired, demoted, or pushed out shortly after requesting or taking mental health leave, that timing can point to unlawful retaliation.
- Interference – Discouraging you from taking leave, pressuring you to come back early, or treating your leave as a problem can be considered interference with your protected rights.
- Failure to accommodate – If your employer refuses to engage in the interactive process or denies a reasonable accommodation (including leave) without a legitimate reason, that can be a violation.
- Disability discrimination – If you’re being treated differently, passed over, or terminated because of your mental health condition or the stigma around it, this is illegal.
What You Actually Have to Share to Take Protected Leave
You don’t have to hand over your full medical history to take protected leave. Your employer can ask for limited documentation confirming that you have a qualifying condition and need leave or accommodation, but they generally can’t demand details about your diagnosis or treatment. Any medical information you do share is supposed to be kept confidential and separate from your regular personnel file.
Why Awareness Is important
All of these protections exist for a reason: caring for your mental health, or someone else’s, shouldn’t require courage. But in real workplaces, it often still does. Mental Health Awareness Month is not just a reminder that mental health is important, but also a push to make sure workers feel safe using the protections they have.
If you believe your employer fired you, retaliated against you, or denied you reasonable accommodation because of a mental health condition or your requesting or taking of mental health leave (for yourself or for a family member) you don’t have to figure it out alone. The attorneys at Matern Law Group are here to help you understand your options.
Resources:
If you’re in a mental health crisis:
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org
- Crisis Text Line – text HOME to 741741
To understand your workplace rights:
- California Civil Rights Department (CRD)
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
- California Labor Commissioner’s Office
To find mental health support:
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Helpline – 1-800-950-6264
- SAMHSA National Helpline – 1-800-662-4357 – free, confidential, 24/7
- Mental Health America – mhanational.org
- California Department of Health Care Services, Mental Health Services