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Disclosing PTSD to a hiring committee?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Should someone recently diagnosed with PTSD disclose this to hiring committee. When they are not military but a refugee and the PTSD comes from violence and other sources experienced as a kid and growing up in an environment like that (so not veteran).

Please be honest and straightforward. They are not looking for sympathy or niceness. They want to know the brutal truth so they can make an informed decision.

Obviously, there's a worry that this just opens the door to potential discrimination. If the OP is willing to run that risk or thinks they owe it to a potential employer to make them aware of their diagnosis, then they can choose to disclose. But I guess I think it depends on what matters more to the OP: principle (honesty) or pragmatism (avoiding potential discrimination).

What do other readers think?

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6 responses to “Disclosing PTSD to a hiring committee?”

  1. ptsd person

    Hi, I have PTSD (or c-PTSD if one believes in that). I would definitely advise against disclosing this to a hiring committee under any circumstances. (I would also advise against disclosing it to one’s colleagues once one has a job–if you need accommodations then, I would suggest running them directly through the relevant office and not mentioning the reasons for them to your colleagues.)
    If you have some overriding reason to want to do this, then of course, take what I say here with a grain of salt. But pragmatically speaking, I would say there is no question that you should not disclose this.

    Reply
  2. ptsd person

    Also I guess I don’t see honesty as a positive reason to disclose (just to respond to Marcus). There are millions of things about ourselves that we needn’t disclose to our future colleagues or employers. Not doing so doesn’t seem to me to count as a failure of honesty or integrity. I think I am a very honest person (and I think others would say that about me too) and my colleagues know little about me, my childhood, my background, etc.

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  3. Young SLAC Prof

    I think that one should absolutely not do this. There is, as Marcus notes, a potential opening for discrimination. But, in my mind, it is just inappropriate. Imagine meeting someone for the first time and they tell you that they have gallstones, or IBS, or depression. This would be extremely odd and off-putting. You are interviewing for a job, not spilling your soul.
    That said, should one receive and take an offer, and, after some time, develop a close relationship with one’s colleagues, then it doesn’t seem odd at all. I had a health scare last year and told a colleague about it. It was not odd at all because we have become close after several years of working together.

    Reply
  4. Don’t do it

    In my circles at least, telling this to a hiring committee would make you seem like you really didn’t understand professional boundaries. Same reasons as @young Slac prof. Personal life things and medical things are not things we share with strangers in professional settings, even when they are severe or tragic. Quite aside from creating opportunities for discrimination I think it would leave the hiring committee with the impression that you were inexperienced with professional norms and might leave them feeling uncomfortably “dumped on”. If you have a specific “ask” for accessibility requirements, those are best processed through official channels. However I would think carefully about whether you do have a particular “ask” (similar to “it helps if you don’t cover your mouth with your hands” for the hearing impaired) or whether instead this can be kept to yourself without compromising your performance.
    Also echoing that in my circles at least I don’t think this would be understood as a trade between honesty and pragmatism. I don’t think honesty requires or even necessarily recommends sharing the gory details of one’s mental health. Many in our profession have all kinds of terrible mental struggles including ptsd that they keep private.

    Reply
  5. southerner

    There are some people for whom this would inform their research and/or teaching. In that case, disclosing could make sense. But I wouldn’t put it in a cover letter.
    I do think refugee experience could make for the rare diversity statement worth reading, provided that it relates to the way you do the job, and how you do a better job/slightly different job than most other people.
    Based on the question, I don’t think that the candidate is in this position, though. It’s fine if your autobiography is not meaningfully related to the way you work. But then it’s also not relevant to the hiring committee and should stay out of applications.

    Reply
  6. Bill V.

    If a friend asked me this question, I would want to know more about why they were considering disclosing. Is there some behavior they would like to explain? Is there an accommodation that is needed during the interview or when holding the job? If either of these, there might be a reason to disclose, but not to the committee as a whole. In most cases a campus interview process will include a contact from HR which asks in a confidential way about any accommodations needed for the visit (frequent breaks, a private room to rest in between meetings, or whatever it might be), If needed, HR then passes limited info/a directive on how to accommodate to the department. If the university doesn’t do that, you can contact HR yourself to arrange an accommodation, if one is needed. But if the PTSD won’t affect the interview, wait until you have the job to arrange accommodations through HR.

    Reply

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