Spotify gave all its staff an extra week off - here’s why
This piece is a part of our Going Against the Grain series, which profiles businesses with the guts to defy convention and test out novel concepts. Go here to view the remaining episodes of the series.
One of the biggest reassessments of work/life balance since the weekend's inception has been brought on by the pandemic. This month, Prince Harry became the most recent person to emphasise the value of time off when he counselled employers to offer their employees time to concentrate on themselves in order to counter the consequences of burnout and stress.
This thought is what motivated Spotify to start a "health week" for its staff. It took place during the first week of November and gave all employees the option to take five paid days off, thereby closing the business for five days.
According to Spotify's senior human resources officer Katarina Berg, the purpose of the week was to offer its employees "a opportunity to refresh and focus on themselves." During the pandemic, the company had been reminding staff informally to take care of their health and wellbeing, but they later came to the conclusion that having a week during which everyone logs off would be "very powerful."
Staff members were free to use the time anyway they pleased, whether that be relaxing, spending time with loved ones, or exploring the outdoors. It was an opportunity to pursue your passion, according to Berg.
Although it might seem like a straightforward plan to give everyone a week off, there were logistical difficulties. Users of its music-streaming platform were informed that playlist updates would be sparse and that support responses would take longer, and that contingency planning was necessary to account for any business-critical events that may have occurred.
Some employees of the company were nevertheless required to work. While several of the sustainability team were in Glasgow at the beginning of November for the COP26 environment conference, members of its crisis management team required to remain on call throughout the week. Later on in the year, a different week off was made available to these people.
Although Berg acknowledges that it would have been ideal if everyone at the company could have taken the entire week off, he is of the opinion that efforts like this can still be successful even if they don't always go as planned.
The majority of the employees who were still at work were able to unwind because there were no crises, according to her. Everyone taking the same week off would have been ideal, but it isn't always possible.
Follow for more:-
Comments
Post a Comment