Work Watch: Is the secret to employee happiness not working?

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In the first lockdown, staff at Lid, a business book publisher, were offered a simple solution to combat stress: an extra day off.

On designated “wellbeing days”, staff were asked to step away from their laptops and “spend some time doing something that will enhance their personal wellbeing”, says chief operating officer Martin Liu.

The benefit was so well-received that it was extended beyond lockdowns. Now, at the start of each year, six wellbeing days are announced, typically during months when there is not a national holiday, to give staff a break from the intensity of work, says Liu. “We are usually very busy.”

Lid has not set rules about what employees do with these days — but does encourage staff to do activities that offer physical and mental benefits. Employees have taken part in sports, prepared healthy meals, learnt self-development ideas, such as mindfulness and meditation, sorted personal finances or met with family and friends. One went on a trip to Avebury in Wiltshire to visit the prehistoric stone circles.

The London-based business publisher is one of a number of companies to introduce wellbeing days, suggesting the secret to workplace happiness may be not actually working.

Adobe, the software group, offers six days a year, while luxury goods company Burberry has half days on Fridays in the summer and in the run-up to Christmas. Bumble, the dating app, gives teams a week-long, company-wide holiday twice a year in addition to its unlimited paid time off policy. Virgin Money gives five discretionary days. 

Such perks are in recognition of the growing concern about wellbeing. A report this year by the American Psychological Association found 77 per cent of workers experienced work-related stress in the previous month, while 57 per cent indicated signs of workplace burnout, such as emotional exhaustion.

At Virgin Money, managers believe it should be up to individuals to decide when to take a break. To encourage days off, the financial services company suggests employees refer to wellbeing days on out-of-office replies, or post on social media. Some have taken to LinkedIn to share activities ranging from a royal garden party with the air cadets, to recovering from a charity walk, to taking a three-day pizza-making course.

Other companies, such as Lid, fix days for all staff, so teams are not distracted by colleagues sending emails or messages on Slack.

The collective break means employees do not “feel burdened by missing key meetings, deliverables or looming deadlines,” says Rosemary Arriada-Keiper, vice-president of total rewards at Adobe. Internal conferencing and collaboration tools at the company show a 99 per cent reduction in meetings and calls on global wellbeing days, compared with a regular working day.

The shared expectation of an official day “motivates us to focus on something that will actually enhance our wellbeing”, says Liu at Lid.

The company had thought about arranging activities to do together as a team, like a picnic or a wellbeing course, but it seemed over-engineered. In the end, Liu says, it seemed more effective to allow each person the freedom to do what they thought would be of benefit to them.

He typically aims for three activities including reading about mental health, physical exercise and connecting with someone he has not seen or spoken to for some time. Though he admits to sometimes doing a bit of work.

Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It, says such days — whether fixed or discretionary — are not a quick fix. And if poorly designed, they can amount to wellness washing — public relations spin that fails to address the problem.

To get the most from wellbeing days, employers should openly support and model their use, for example by having leaders share how they spent their time on internal channels. Staff should take days before they have “hit the wall” and can’t mentally and physically show up. “We need people to take mental health days proactively — not reactively,” Moss adds. “It’s difficult if inevitably you feel stigmatised for taking one.”

Research in the Journal of Advanced Nursing found that people taking “mental health days” were more likely to report problems at work, as well as mental health issues. The authors concluded that wellbeing days were only dealing with the symptoms of overwork, and that other, earlier interventions might have been more effective in preventing problems in the first place.

Moss says: “If we aren’t tackling the root causes of burnout and the chronic stressors at work — mental health days become a band-aid solution. If you have a culture of overwork, you’re going to either work while on a mental health day or never take one.”

emma.jacobs@ft.com