{"id":84175,"date":"2025-01-21T05:41:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T10:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/?p=84175"},"modified":"2025-02-03T15:47:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T20:47:46","slug":"what-to-make-of-unhappy-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/what-to-make-of-unhappy-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Make of \u201cUnhappy Leaves\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A corporate trend from China has managed to grab attention in America: the idea of granting employees “unhappy leaves.” What should we make of this trend? Let\u2019s break it down.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, during the “2024 Supermarkets Week” The owner of the Chinese grocery chain Pang Dong Lai announced a new policy: granting employees 10 “unhappy leaves” per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I want all my staff to have freedom. Everyone has moments when they don’t feel happy,” said the founder<\/a>, Yu Dong Lai. “So, if you’re unhappy one day, don’t come to work. We want our employees to have a relaxed and healthy life, so the company can also be relaxed and healthy.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This trend quickly spread across media outlets, from the South China Morning Post<\/em> to the Economic Times<\/em><\/a> and even the Guardian<\/a>,<\/em> before finally making its way to the U.S. in publications like Fast Company<\/a><\/em> and Forbes.<\/em> Particularly enthusiastic, Forbes<\/a><\/em> claimed that this policy had become “a new solution” for organizations to combat disengagement and burnout. Really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDepression Leaves\u201d vs. \u201cWellness Leaves\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Is this media buzz or a genuine trend? It\u2019s a fair question. Are there really companies (besides the Chinese chain, of course…) offering \u201cdepression leaves\u201d to their employees? And is this something employees actually want?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We reached out to Monia Boulais, president of the HR agency MB Ressources Humaines, to see if this trend had taken hold in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Personally, I haven\u2019t seen any ‘depression leaves’ in organizations. However, many companies offer wellness or well-being leaves that could address stress or mental health issues experienced by an employee. Focusing on the element of depression would send an odd message,” she added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A Broader Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boulais explained that under labor standards, employees in Quebec are entitled to 10 sick days, two of which are paid. Many companies go beyond this by adding 5 to 10 \u201cwellness\u201d or \u201cwell-being\u201d days, which fall under the broader theme of holistic employee health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“This includes not only sick days but also caregiver leaves for children or personal days to be taken after a period of heavy workload. It also allows employees to take time off without needing to justify their absence.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Feeling a little down? A wellness leave policy like this might just help lift your spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A corporate trend from China has managed to grab attention in America: the idea of granting employees “unhappy leaves.” What should we make of this trend? Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":84182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[158],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84234,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84175\/revisions\/84234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}