Companies Are Still Trying To Combat Burnout

Mozilla, producer of the Firefox Web browser, adjusted its usual annual two-week off-site meeting, which last took place in January of 2020.

However, the company is not just shifting the program to online Zoom meetings. Instead, the company is now offering a “Wellness Week” leading into the Fourth of July weekend.

This coincides with the company’s other initiatives, such as its “Wellness Day” which incorporates a companywide day off once a month, every month for this year.

Companies like PepsiCo and Verizon are also offering pandemic-era perks such as paid time off and childcare or eldercare benefits, such as flexible work schedules.

Even more, Shopfiy introduced “Rest & Refuel Fridays” last summer and will do so again July through August of this year.  

All of these efforts aim to combat the ever growing issue that has plagued many professionals over the past year: burnout.

According to a Ipsos poll from March, around 40% of Americans said they felt burned out over the past year, and 42% said they would look for another job if they were expected to return to the office full-time.

“Expecting people to just ‘return to work’ does not acknowledge the challenges and difficulties employees endured,” said Marianne Cooper, sociologist at Stanford University. “Employers can’t expect employees to just pretend like we didn’t just live through a social catastrophe — especially as that catastrophe continues to unfold around the world.”