Well well well. What do we have here? Making my way through Reddit tonight, I stumbled across a post in r/antiwork that appears to be Ben Simmons complaining about his job under a burner account. A Reddit user u/mrgeriatric posted a long message titled “My boss is “fining” me for seeking mental health treatment” and maybe I’m just going crazy but I’m almost positive the account is posting this story that sounds almost identical to what we have been going through with Ben Simmons over the past five months. Check it out and see for yourself.

My boss is “fining” me for seeking mental health treatment

Sorry if some of this is vague, but I want to limit details for obvious reasons.

While one of the youngest employees at my firm, I was probably considered by all my colleagues and superiors as more than capable and was pegged to be kind of a big star in the future. I’ve even been formally recognized for some of my accomplishments at work. I won’t bore you with all the details, but April-June is a critical time of the year in my industry.

I had a lot going on at that time and still do. My sister publicly accused my half-brother of repeatedly molesting her growing up, so obviously a this was a huge stressor for me and my family. There has been a legal battle between them, with my brother now suing her after being cleared of all charges. It’s really had an obviously big impact on myself and my family’s mental well being.

So, back to early summer. I think I’d even admit I wasn’t on my best game. There’s a lot of ways I contribute at work that go unnoticed, but there’s also things I am VERY uncomfortable doing as one of the younger employees. Sometimes I let anxiety get the best of me, and as I was saying, this was already a difficult time. So yeah, probably didn’t have my best stretch of quality work done during this critical time, but I felt I still accomplished good things and that others’ errors were going unnoticed.

My boss then proceeds to trash me not only privately within the company, but also on social media. He’s been saying shit like, “I don’t know if he’s our answer going forward” and “I don’t know if we can succeed with him running point.” Passive aggressive shit like that.

Luckily, I had quite a bit of vacation saved up, so in June I took some time off. My boss was perfectly fine with me taking the amount of time I did. He seemed to understand that I really needed it. During this time, I went to see a psychiatrist. He recommended I take additional time away from work and explore more treatment options after identifying some specific work-related triggers.

The contract that I signed for work a year back explicitly states that I am to receive regular pay if I am have a medical reason rendering me “unfit to execute contractual obligations.” There’s even a section specifically referring to mental illness as a valid reason!

Well now, my boss is placing my money in a separate bank account which he says he can only release to me if I resume my work responsibilities. He’s also demanding that I see their “company-approved” psychiatrist. My company is now asking for medication and diagnosis information as well as asking to speak with the original mental health professionals I sought out myself.

Can someone please explain how any of this is legal?

(LINK TO REDDIT POST)

Look, I’m not going to speculate on whether or not this is actually Ben Simmons. Honestly I’m not even sure if I can agree with everything that was written in the post. It does however, seem to slightly resemble the life of Ben Simmons. I’d be a fool to not recognize that after writing about him daily for the last five months. Is it possible the 76ers have another burner gate scandal on their hands? I’m not sure if I can go through something like that again.

I’m not the only one who thinks it could be Simmons. A few of the replies also seem to suggest it’s him too.

I’ll leave that up to the loyal readers of The Liberty Line to decide.

I would also like to thank everyone for not asking me why I was reading the r/antiwork subreddit. To be clear, I am very much pro-work. Just want to make sure I’m clear on that.

Great work by u/mrgeriatric on Reddit. Cheers.