The pandemic has pushed both employers and employees to acknowledge the importance of mental wellness and the need to take time off. In the past few months, global brands such as Nike, Bumble, LinkedIn and Hootsuite, announced a week off for employees to battle burnout and rejuvenate.

India’s newly-minted unicorn, Meesho, has also followed the footsteps of these global companies by announcing 10 days off for its 1,000 employees from November 4 to 14. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Vidit Aatrey, said on Twitter: “Announcing a 10-day Meesho-wide break to allow our team members to rejuvenate after a hectic festival season. Another decision aligned with our company’s value of building a people-centric workplace.”

Peak business days

Meesho is a social e-commerce company that enables small businesses and individuals sell women’s clothing and accessories through social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram. Like any other e-commerce company, the festival season around Diwali are the peak business days for Meesho.

“This month and the next couple of months, just before Diwali, are a peak time for all businesses in the country. A large part of our business happens during this period, too, and many of our employees enthusiastically work very long hours to make that a success,” Ashish Kumar Singh, Chief HR Officer, Meesho, told BusinessLine.

He added that even without the festival season, Meesho is growing 10 times year-on-year, and so it is a place where employees are working very hard. This leadership team-led decision was made based on the recognition of how remote work has changed the working hours for employees across companies.

“Employees voluntarily never asked for a break, but they are working hard. I’m sure, unknown to us, a lot of our employees are also working even harder and longer hours in remote work than they used to do in physical office days,” Singh added.

McKinsey and Company’s Reimagine Work: Employee Survey (Dec 2020 to Jan 2021) concluded that 49 per cent of the survey respondents experienced burnout at work. The consulting firm said that this may be not be the actual percentage as employees who experience burnout are less likely to respond to survey request and a majority of them may have already left the workforce after the Covid-19 crisis. Last year, as remote work blurred the boundaries between work and personal life, start-ups such as Razorpay, Freshworks and Sarva, came up with people-centric policies such as no-meeting days and burnout leaves to promote mental well being.

Talent and innovation

Meesho sees such efforts as being business critical for any new-age organisation because they are largely dependent on talent and innovation. In the words of Singh, “whoever is able to attract, retain and engage talent better is going to win in the long run”.

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