Bumble announces one week paid leave to combat burnout, pandemic stress for employees

A Bumble spokesperson said, “Like everyone, our global team has had a very challenging time during this pandemic. We wanted to give our teams around the world an opportunity to shut off and focus on themselves for a week”

By: Lifestyle Desk

New Delhi | June 22, 2021 06:20 PM IST

3 min read

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Dating app Bumble's week-long paid leave for employees is winning praises. (Source: Getty Images/Thinkstock)

Dating app Bumble has announced that it is giving its 700 employees worldwide a week’s paid break to combat workplace stress amid the pandemic. The staff has been told to switch off and focus on themselves.

In an official statement, a Bumble spokesperson said, “Like everyone, our global team has had a very challenging time during this pandemic. We wanted to give our teams around the world an opportunity to shut off and focus on themselves for a week.”

Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd made the move “having correctly intuited our collective burnout”, said a senior executive praising it as “a much-needed break”, BloombergQuint reported.

In a tweet, which was later deleted, Clare O’Connor, head of editorial content at Bumble shared, “Whitney Wolfe Herd gave all 700ish of us a paid week off, having correctly intuited our collective burnout. In the US especially, where vacation days are notoriously scarce, it feels like a big deal.”

The dating app, which is popular among women, received praised on Twitter for its timely move.

A user commented, “Good publicity and a morale boost for staff. Win-win.”
https://twitter.com/Wintin67/status/1407233092616704005
Another user suggested how it is a ‘useful’ measure. “Useful curative measure: will be interesting to see what longer-term preventative measures are settled upon to avoid rather than treat burnout.”

Ever since work from home has started owing to the pandemic, professionals have been reporting burnout in various forms including virtual.

“If you have been feeling exhausted, even though your work just demands talking/sitting through video calls, then you may have experienced virtual meeting burnout leading to fatigue, decreased sustained attention and straining cognitive resources,” explained Ajeeta Mulye, psychologist and outreach associate, Mpower – The Foundation, in an earlier interaction with indianexpress.com.

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While not classified as a medical condition, burnout is categorised as an “occupational phenomenon” as per the International Classification of Diseases under the World Health Organization (WHO). According to its definition, burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions, which are feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy.

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