Can more time off help people destress?

Last month, home beauty services start-up YesMadam, in a social media post, announced the layoff of 100 employees who confessed to "being stressed" in an internal survey.

- Geetika Sachdev

After receiving online criticism, the Noida-based startup clarified it was part of a marketing campaign to raise awareness about the "seriousness of workplace stress."

Consequently, the company introduced a programme, Happy 2 Heal, under which employees can get head massages and spa sessions in the office, and a "de-stress leave" policy that permits employees to take six days of paid leave annually for their mental health, along with the facility to avail a complimentary spa at home by YesMadam. "We firmly believe that the backbone of any great organisation is not built on stressed shoulders but on happy minds. So, let's make employee well-being the new norm," the company's official statement read.

It isn't the first time that an organisation has come up with a mental wellness policy. Several companies have introduced a variety of programmes aimed at helping employees strike a work-life balance. In 2020, for instance, fintech startup Razorpay announced the second Wednesday of every month to be a No Meeting Day to cut down on the number of internal meetings, and renamed its sick leaves to "wellness leaves". The same year, home services platform Urban Company launched an initiative where employees could take unlimited leaves if they had any physical or mental illness.

Global corporates like Microsoft and Unilever have also launched programmes for employees, with a focus on mental health and workplace stress management. At Capgemini, benefits like parental leave, surrogacy leave, and even gender affirmation surgery are a part of their employee wellness strategy.

Workplace stress, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is defined as "the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope."