Now more than ever, employers are becoming more sensitive to their workers’ well-being, and this story is a prime example of how companies can look after their employees and make mental health a priority: this company just gave its staff a full week off to catch up on work stuff!
So awesome! This is how you show your employees that you care.
Prism, a digital marketing company based in Denver, Colorado, clearly knows how to take care of its employees’ mental health and wellness, because this week they generously offered each and every one of their staff members a full week of paid vacation so they could take some much-needed time to make progress on their never-ending work to-do lists.
“We know that the daily grind of meetings and assignments can really take a toll on people, which is why we felt it was important to give our employees some time off to just slow down, decompress, and knock out all the little work tasks they haven’t yet gotten around to yet due to more urgent projects we’ve needed them to prioritize,” said Prism CEO Tim Dyler. “We hope that the week off will give our team the mental space they need to recharge their batteries and start tackling all the work they’ve been neglecting with renewed energy.”
Awesome!
Numerous studies in recent years have found that giving employees more time off actually improves workplace productivity, and this is exactly the kind of result Dyler is hoping for in light of a series of cost-cutting measures and layoffs Prism made in the past year, forcing the company to start doing much more with less. The resulting increased workloads have undoubtedly left Prism’s employees more than ready to enjoy a full week to themselves at home with zero deadlines—just relaxed, unstructured time to clear their minds of their nine-to-five responsibilities and make a dent in some of the unfinished work that has been hanging over their heads and causing undue mental strain.
And if the time off wasn’t already generous enough, Prism recently announced plans to offer free weekly in-office yoga sessions to help give employees the inner calm they need to deal with anxiety related to the company’s extremely demanding and often exploitative workplace culture. This should be a huge boon for employee mental health, as the health insurance plan the company currently offers does not provide coverage for therapy visits or virtually any other type of psychiatric care.
Wow!
Kudos to Prism for going above and beyond for its employees and investing in their mental health. Here’s hoping more companies start following their example by offering the time off their employees need to truly unwind and attend to the all the unfinished work that their livelihoods depend on.
