Yarno has been experimenting with a new kind of leave: wellbeing leave!
What is wellbeing leave, you ask?
We found that Yarnoers were rarely taking annual leave for self-care. Generally, it’s used for holidays, and time with friends and family – and rightly so! But we wanted to encourage Yarnoers to carve out some time for themselves to invest in self-care.
Burnout and work fatigue are on the rise, so we wanted to give the team a way to spend some time away from the computer, and doing something that makes them happy.
Wellbeing leave is designed to give Yarnoers a day off to do something that fills their cup, whether it’s going to the beach, taking themselves to the spa, or spending the day volunteering. (These are in addition to our 2 annual doona days, which is leave designated for days where we wake up and we’re just not feeling it. "I’m not coming to work today", no questions asked.)
We started out by running a wellbeing leave experiment at the start of the year. This was because we wanted to know if it was actually going to be useful for people, and not just add extra work to their plate by having an extra day off.
Luckily, feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and going forward, full-time Yarnoers will get six days off per year (pro-rata for part-timers), to take wellbeing leave. When we get back from our day of recharging, we share photos and a description, in our dedicated #wellbeing Slack channel, of what we got up to.
Some of the highlights so far include:
✨ Donating hair to Sustainable Salons, who give the hair to wig makers to make for charities
✨ Taking a sunny beach walk
✨ Going to the movies for a movie marathon
✨ Spending quality time with parents over a long lunch
Wellbeing days aren’t the first step towards Yarno embracing a mentally healthy culture, either!
Last year, we engaged the services of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), that offers counselling and guidance sessions to Yarnoers. They also offer monthly educational seminars around different topics related to mental health and wellbeing. I attended one on Positive Psychology, and it has really helped shift my mindset towards challenges and setbacks.
We use Yarno (of course!) to run regular learning campaigns around mental health and empathetic communication, which develops our skills in talking about sensitive topics, identifying when something might be wrong and equips us to better handle these situations, both personally and professionally.
Being aware of when we need a time out, and how to recover from emotional fatigue, is an invaluable skill.
Why is workplace wellbeing so important?
Workplace wellbeing has been in the spotlight a bit recently. ELMO reported that 46% of Australian employees admitted feeling burnt out in 2022, according to their last Employee Sentiment Index. Covid was a stressful time, and those levels of stress don’t just go away!
In fact, it’s being referred to as 2022’s silent pandemic: workplace mental health and wellbeing.
According to the same ELMO report, 32% of Australians feel overwhelmed by the amount of work on their plate, and 24% say their workload has increased since pre-Covid. Worldwide, daily employee stress climbed to 43% through the pandemic, and Gallup reports this statistic only increased in companies without swift and effective intervention.
Not only is it devastating for the individual, but costly for the business. Poor psychological conditions at work cost businesses about $10.9 billion per year, including absenteeism and compensation claims.
And while it sucks that burnout and emotional fatigue is on the rise in the workplace, it’s heartening to see it receiving so much attention.
Before the pandemic, discussion around mental health and wellbeing was fairly private, and treated as a case-by-case basis. Now, it’s being acknowledged as a very tangible concern that can affect anyone, and companies are more aware of mental health in the workplace.
The 2021 Global Burnout Study found that nearly 35% of respondents were experiencing burnout, which was higher than the year before, and a trend that is feared to continue. This is often the result of poor workplace culture and high levels of stress and is not the fault of the individual employee.
9 in 10 workers in Australia believe having a mentally healthy workplace is important. And it is. Positive work climates create overall healthier staff, by improving culture and team attitude.
Organisations need to invest more in wellbeing activities to combat feelings of stress and burnout. Keeping self-care a priority, and encouraging a proper work-life balance will help teams to keep a healthy mindset at work.
In fact, according to Gallup, working for an organisation that cares about their employees’ well-being is the number one workplace want for millennials and Generation Z. And given that they take up such a large percentage of the current workforce, they’re probably people you want to please!
The solution? Culture.
Company culture has a huge impact on how people feel at work.
A mentally healthy workplace culture is one where teams feel comfortable talking openly about mental health, feel educated on mental health, and can communicate regularly and respectfully with their team.
Not only does it benefit the individual; teams working in psychologically safe environments are stronger problem-solvers, innovators and sounder decision-makers. They have increased positive emotions and productivity levels. It’s a win-win, really!
I’m really excited for the rollout of Yarno’s wellbeing days. It’s a great way to call timeout if things are feeling a bit overwhelming, and take some time to do something that evens out our work-life balance.
