10-days work break, unlimited wellness leaves & more: How Meesho and other cos are prioritising employee’s well-being

In a first of its kind unique initiative, Meesho rolls out a wellness oriented move to let employees unplug themselves through its ‘Reset and Recharge’ policy! Work from home has undoubtedly been a welcome move for most employees. Workers are more comfortable working at the comfort of their homes where they are able to happily enjoy work and also spend quality time with the family. The remote culture has made employees focus on work and health in tandem. The transition wasn’t that simple with people coping up with the new environment, a new normal, new work culture and withdrawing themselves completely from the outside world. The new normal also shifted focus towards mental wellness and discussions regarding the subject also started intensifying.

Organisations are increasingly promoting the importance of mental health of their workers. With working hours exceeding rapidly, companies have been introducing a host of options for employees for them to take a break from work prioritising overall well being of the workforce.

In one such move, Meesho, an online marketplace, has recently announced a company wide 10-days break for employees to unplug themselves from work from November 4 to November 14 implementing its ‘Reset and Recharge’ policy. Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho announced the news on his social media platforms Twitter and LinkedIn. “Meesho is going on a company-wide break from November 4-14th” read the official statement from the company’s official Twitter page.

Meesho is going on a company-wide break from November 4-14th.
Yes, you read that right. We are going to completely unplug from work — right after our busy and frenetic festive sale season, so that we are back to doing what we love — relaxed and rejuvenated. (1/2)#Meesho pic.twitter.com/CGusDZZyfw

— Life@Meesho (@meeshoapp) August 30, 2021

Sharing the post on LinkedIn three days ago, the company wrote “Between 2020 and 2021, we know how hard the pandemic has been on our mental health and productivity, and Meesho being a people-centric workplace understands this. We will always put our employees’ well being as top priority and the Reset and Recharge policy is one step towards that.” Founder Vidit Aatrey too shared the post on his LinkedIn profile.

With physical movements coming down and people facing health issues every now and then, Indian startup Zerodha Broking Limited has also come up with a way to promote physical fitness/wellness among its employees. In order to promote fitness, Nitin Kamath, Founder, Zerodha, has shared surprising tweets to encourage employees for fitness and managing their health.

In the series of tweets, Kamath wrote that just like everywhere, Zerodha team, as a whole, was at its unhealthiest phase due to lack of physical movements/ activities. We came up with plans to get the team moving and that truly has brought us phenomenal results and improved employees’ performance. We asked all the employees to set a 12-month get-healthy goal and keep the company updated with the progress on a monthly basis to ensure accountability. In order to win more participation from the team, we offered to give a 1-month salary as bonus a chance to win a Rs 10 lakh lucky draw. He also added that Our Get Healthy program will continue to run from now onwards and he shared this idea to inspire fellow entrepreneurs.

Post the first lockdown, like everywhere, our team @zerodhaonline as a whole was probably the unhealthiest ever, due to the lack of physical activity, work-life imbalance, bad diet, & more. We thought of a way to nudge the team to get healthy and the results are phenomenal. 1/3

— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) August 28, 2021

Myntra, fashion e-commerce company , had introduced ‘Unlimited Wellness Leaves’ for its employees in February this year alongwith host of other leave options for its employees. The e-tailer company wrote in the statement that keeping in mind the importance of mental health, the company has introduced an unlimited wellness leave policy for Myntraites. They can now avail themselves with an infinite number of leaves–both physical and mental wellbeing without having to worry about their leave balance.

“Keeping in mind the importance of mental health or the need to de-stress and recharge, we have introduced an unlimited wellness leave policy. Myntraites can now avail themselves of an infinite number of days off for both physical and mental wellbeing without worrying about their leave balance,” wrote Myntra in a blog released on February, 17 2021.