In this episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I sit down with Jennifer Moffett, a senior technology leader who has spent over 22 years at PayPal, a national suicide prevention advocate with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a volunteer leader on the Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Coalition, and a suicide loss survivor. We are covering one of the least-discussed parts of the mental health continuum at work: not identification, not crisis intervention, but what happens after. How do you return someone to work from mental health leave in a way that supports recovery rather than simply declaring it complete?
Jennifer opens with a framing I use every time I talk about this with employers: silence is not neutral. When a manager is so afraid of saying the wrong thing that they say almost nothing, the employee reads that silence as avoidance, judgment, or indifference. The manager's discomfort becomes the employee's burden. Jennifer's 22 years at PayPal, and the deeply personal story of how they handled her own leave two weeks into her career after losing her stepfather to suicide, give her a grounded, firsthand view of what good reintegration looks like and what it produces in terms of loyalty, longevity, and genuine belonging.
The episode is short, practical, and packed with things any manager can do next week. It covers how to prepare before the employee walks back in, how to have the return conversation humanely, how to co-create the reintegration plan rather than handing one down, how to manage the disclosure conversation with consent and collaboration at the center, and how to hold accountability without sacrificing the dignity that makes recovery possible in the first place.
Why This Matters in the Workplace
The Gap Nobody Talks About
Most workplace mental health conversations focus on identification and intervention: recognizing that someone is struggling, starting the conversation, getting them to help. What follows, the leave itself and the return from it, is treated as an HR and compliance matter rather than a leadership and care matter. Jennifer's argument is that the reintegration period is one of the highest-stakes moments in an employee's relationship with their employer, and the way it is handled determines not just whether that person comes back, but whether they stay, thrive, and become the kind of loyal, engaged team member their employer was hoping for.
What Employees Are Afraid of When They Return
• Will I be judged for what happened?
• Will people treat me differently?
• Am I expected to perform at full capacity on day one?
• Does everyone know? Does no one know? Which is worse?
• Will my manager avoid me because they don't know what to say?
• Will this be held against me in performance reviews or promotion decisions?
What Managers Are Afraid of When Someone Returns
• Saying the wrong thing and making it worse
• Opening a conversation they are not equipped to handle
• Violating privacy or creating legal liability
• Having to hold someone accountable who is still in recovery
• The leave extending indefinitely with no clear path back
• Managing team morale and workload while the job is held
Silence Is Not Neutral and Not Privacy-Preserving
One of the most important reframes in this episode: managers who say nothing because they want to preserve the employee's privacy are not actually preserving anything. Silence signals avoidance. It leaves the employee alone in the room with their own fears about how they are perceived. And it forecloses the possibility of a genuine, trusting working relationship on the other side of the leave. Silence is its own message, and it is rarely the one the manager intended to send.
In this episode, we’ll answer:
How do you support an employee returning from mental health leave?
What should a manager say when an employee comes back from mental health leave?
How do you hold an employee accountable while they are recovering from a mental health condition?
Should an employee disclose a mental health condition when returning from leave?
How does silence affect an employee returning from mental health leave?
Two Tactical Takeaways from This Episode
Tactical Takeaway #1: Rebuild Confidence Before Rebuilding Productivity
Jennifer's first takeaway reorders the manager's priority sequence on return. Most managers, facing a backlog of work and a team that has been covering for an absent colleague, arrive at the return conversation focused on how fast they can get this person back to full capacity. Jennifer's reframe is direct: before you think about any of that, focus on the person. Confidence comes before productivity. And confidence is built through the signals you send in the first conversation, the first week, and the first month.
The practical steps are specific and actionable. If possible, have a coffee before the employee enters the workspace for the first time. Not a performance conversation. A human one. Lead with "I'm so glad you're back" rather than "how are you feeling?" Do not say "welcome back, you must be better" because returning to work is not the same as recovering. Ask what you can do to help them be successful. Ask how often they want you to check in. Work on the reintegration plan together rather than handing one down. Discuss disclosure only in terms of what the employee wants and who they want to tell. Make clear that they do not owe anyone an explanation.
WHY IT WORKS
When an employee's first experience of returning is a manager who is focused on them as a person rather than as a productivity unit, the relationship resets on trust rather than pressure. That trust is the foundation on which genuine reintegration is built. Without it, the employee is performing recovery for the manager's benefit rather than actually recovering. Jennifer's own experience of having a mentor check in during her leave and say "when you're ready to come back, just let us know, we'll be here" produced over two decades of loyalty. That is not a small return on a small investment of time.
Tactical Takeaway #2: Support Recovery Without Sacrificing Dignity, Trust, or Accountability
Jennifer's second takeaway holds two things together that are often treated as incompatible: supporting an employee in recovery and holding them accountable to their role. Her argument is that these are not opposites. They become opposites only when accountability is wielded without dignity, or when recovery is used as a reason to eliminate all expectations. The goal is both, and communication is what makes both possible simultaneously.
The practical application is a check-in rhythm that the manager and employee design together, with explicit permission to pivot if things are not working. If the first week's plan is not working, that is not a failure. It is information, and the plan can adjust. What matters is that the employee knows the manager can hear that things are not going smoothly without penalizing them for it. The back pain analogy makes the point cleanly: if someone cannot lift the 50 pounds, you find out if there is another place they can still do meaningful work. Dignity, trust, and accountability are not in conflict. They are the architecture of the relationship.
WHY IT WORKS
Recovery is not linear. Employees who know their manager understands that and has built flexibility into the plan are far more likely to be honest about how things are actually going. And honest communication is what allows a manager to provide the right support at the right time rather than discovering too late that things went off track. The employer who helped Jennifer shift to a different team and a different schedule when her situation changed after her leave did not lose a productive employee. They gained one who stayed for 22 years.
about JENNIFER MOFFETT
Jennifer Moffett is a senior manager of technical programs at PayPal, where she has spent more than 22 years leading global complex technology work. At the heart of her role, she turns complicated goals into clear plans while making sure people have what they need to do their best work. She is particularly skilled at helping teams navigate major change without losing sight of the people doing the work.
Outside her corporate role, Jennifer is a longtime suicide prevention advocate and educator with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and a volunteer leader on the executive board of the Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Coalition. She is also a facilitator with the Soul Shop movement. Jennifer is a suicide loss survivor, having lost her stepfather Tom to suicide two weeks after joining PayPal early in her career. That experience, and the way her company showed up for her in that moment, shaped how she thinks about grief, leadership, and what it means to build a workplace where people can bring their whole selves.
A mezzo-soprano by training, Jennifer originally studied vocal performance and music education before becoming a single mother in college and pivoting to financial services. The thread running through every chapter of her career, whether preparing to teach music or leading global technology programs, has always been helping people grow.