Medical leave exists to protect employees, not to give HR a reason to go digging through their health records.

When a marketing manager came back from burnout leave and discovered her HR rep had sent her doctor a form asking about her diagnoses, medications, and whether her condition posed a “direct threat” to herself on the job, she pushed back in writing and made her position very clear.

The gaslighting started almost immediately after.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

HR manager wants my physician to fill out a 15-question form about my mental illness

I had to take a 2-week medical leave. The actual cause is burnout from this job — I’ve been kindly but firmly asking for a new hire.

I am the marketing manager, but also manage the ecommerce and website, as well as project management for the complex and difficult nature of product release — 40+ SKUs a year — and finding all the info I need from the owners can feel like pulling teeth until launch day.

They’ve dragged their feet on hiring help. Thus, burnout.

This leads this employee to question HR’s competence.

I tell “HR” — using quotes, because she took an online course and I don’t think she’s totally qualified — and immediately she tells me I won’t be extended FMLA and that I need to use PTO and provide a doctor’s note with a request form I had to sign.

Begrudgingly, the employee complies.

Fine. I do all of that, she approves, and the form is closed. The doctor’s note affirmed the leave and nothing more.

I get back after leave and call a meeting with my manager, who is also the owner, to regroup. HR, last minute, decides to sit in.

The topic of understaffing comes up once again, but HR seems content with just working everyone to the bone.

She takes notes as I reiterate certain aspects about my job that are difficult — my coworkers who work closely with me could absolutely vouch, and have.

She asks, “Things aren’t going to change… is this something you can handle?”

Frustrated, I said, “No. I don’t think the workload would be sustainable for anyone.”

The nature of the work is just too much for one person.

Believe me when I say it’s a LOT — my manager and owner is really all over the place in giving me info I can’t find anywhere on the internet, and we release 6-10 SKUs five times a year.

Then HR starts distorting the truth.

HR then says, “I’m afraid this leave is going to happen again, so I want to have your medical on file.”

She later goes on to say I requested accommodations — those words have never left my mouth.

Days pass and I don’t hear from her.

Then I get a message from the doctor’s office saying they received a form and can’t fill it out without my being there. I schedule an appointment, and my doctor is weirded out by the form.

She can’t believe what’s on this form.

The questions are bizarre:

“What is [redacted]’s current diagnoses that are preventing the employee from performing job essentials?” (This is so not true — I’m just constantly overworked, and it’s documented. I have stellar performance reviews.)

“Please describe medications and corrective measures.”

“Would the employee’s condition pose a direct threat while working as Marketing Lead to the employee’s own safety? The assessment should include: a) duration of risk, b) nature and severity of potential harm, c) likelihood of potential harm, d) imminence of potential harm.”

“Can the employee perform essential functions of the job as Marketing Lead? See attached job description.

This immediately feels like a clear overstep.

What the heck?!

She wants a list of my doctor’s visits and future scheduled appointments.

There are numerous questions in which she wants my doctor to confirm “accommodations” — remember, I never asked for them. This form was entirely her idea.

I have “15 days,” and then something is supposed to happen.

So she writes back to HR, which only makes matters worse.

I replied back at length to document all of the above, reinstate my stance on not filling this out, AND the fact that I asked for no such accommodations.

She’s not talking to me in the office and is throwing weird, gaslighting microaggressions at me.

She has a history of strange, mean behavior toward vocal people and has even barked at me over our company messaging service. Everything is in writing here!

The hypocrisy is almost too much to bear.

Funny how she made us take a disability discrimination and harassment course.

She was super buddy-buddy and considered me a work bestie — and recently became super mean and calculated.

This woman should most definitely not be in HR.

What did Reddit have to say?

Maybe it’s time for the doctor to speak up about how unreasonable this all is.

It’s clear to this user what the end goal is.

This isn’t just wrong, but actually against the law.

Why not go over HR’s head and go right to someone with actual power?

Some people just aren’t meant to be in HR, and this woman is definitely one of them.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.