About once a week for the past year or so, Andy has threatened to call in sick. Take a mental health day. And he never has. Until TODAY. Why? Well, gee, he’s ACTUALLY SICK. Good for him (not for being sick but for calling in). But now perhaps he’ll NEVER take a mental health day because he’ll feel too guilty about having taken a real sick day.

No, it’s not just semantics; there’s something under all of this that means something. He doesn’t want to let his coworkers down so often lets himself down without always realizing it; this selfless behavior in turn leads to stress, lowering of his immune system, etc. and actually getting sick. Conclusion? If one took more mental health days, one would need to take fewer sick days.