There are bad bosses, good bosses, and sometimes, there are even great bosses. LinkedIn, infamously, is home to all three, and when scrolling through the randomly curated feed, you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get.

That’s why Stephanie Barney, CEO of Girls on the Go, raised some serious eyebrows with one of her recent posts.

CEO “doesn’t allow” mental health days

Barney spends her days running Girls on the Go, a health and wellness community for women that focuses on in-person, girl-only events that help members “combat loneliness, stay active, socialise and make new friends.“

As CEO, Barney is in charge of a small but growing team. And she recently took to LinkedIn to share one key element of her management style.

“I don’t allow my employees to take mental health days,” she wrote in the post. That provocative opening line is what the kids would call textbook “rage-bait.”

People were ready to go off on Barney in the comments. That is, of course, until they kept reading.

“I don’t care if you need a break. I don’t care if you can’t get out of bed. I don’t care if you have a doctors appointment,” the post continued.

And then came the punchline: “Because I TRUST my employees.”

The Gen Z CEO went on to explain that her wording was very intentional and not purely there to grab eyeballs. “I don’t ‘allow them’ to do anything. I trust that they know when they feel most productive and when they work the best.”

Read the whole post here:

Approach has yielded great results in a short amount of time

Barney is only in her early twenties and doesn’t have the management experience of a lot of her peers on LinkedIn, but her bona-fides are already beginning to speak for themselves.

Barney was named Merseyside’s Woman of the Year in 2025 when she was just 23 years old.

The founder of the award noted at the time, “What Stephanie has built in such a short time and at such a young age is nothing short of remarkable. Not only has she built a safe, inclusive and diverse community of women and girls that is actively tackling the issue of loneliness and isolation, she has made it financially sustainable [while], delivering social impact.”

There’s more going on here than just the Gen Z passion for better work-life balance. Turns out, trusting your employees is a strong management style.

Post strikes a cord on LinkedIn

Thousands of people Liked Barney’s post, with hundreds more chiming in in the comments section:

“Congrats on being a fabulous boss and striving to create work environments and experiences empowering your team”

“Most bosses throughout my 35 year career haven’t gotten it. No latitude. “

“When people feel safe to manage their own time and energy, they don’t just survive at work, they thrive.”

“Reminds me of high school vs college where the professors were like you’re all adults don’t ask to use the restroom just go. Be a post-college workplace, not a high school workplace”

The stigma of mental health days

Barney’s post taps into an unspoken stigma about “mental health days.” Sometimes, we all need one to be at our best. But asking for one feels weak and vulnerable, even though one in five Americans receive treatment for their mental health, according to MIT’s Sloan School of Management. It’s not uncommon, weird, or unnecessary. And yet, the stigma persists.

“In reality, talking about mental illness or asking for a mental health day at many offices is risky,” writes Talkspace. “Only the most progressive companies provide mental health days or create an environment where it is safe to ask for one.”

An incredibly innovative solution: Don’t make anyone ask, or worse, lie.

Research is conclusive that vacation, or even just a rest day at home, makes us better and more productive employees. Barney is right: CEOs shouldn’t “allow” this time off. They should trust their colleagues to know when it’s needed and act accordingly.

The post CEO explains why she doesn’t allow employees to take mental health days appeared first on Upworthy.