Should all workers get unhappiness leave? It beats awaydays, work-life balance seminars and company yoga
No more croaky, fake phone-in-sick voice for the employees of one regional Chinese supermarket chain: the founder of Pang Dong Lai, Yu Donglai, is offering employees up to 10 days’ “unhappiness leave”.
“I want every staff member to have freedom. Everyone has times when they’re not happy, so if you’re not happy, do not come to work,” Yu said at an industry conference, according to the South China Morning Post. Staff can take “unhappy days” when they want, in addition to normal sick and holiday leave entitlements, and management can’t refuse: “Denial is a violation,” Yu said. He seems like a decent boss: employee salaries are nearly double the sector average, and Yu has reportedly spoken out against China’s long hours culture and said: “We want our employees to have a healthy and relaxed life, so that the company will be too.” (Though, combined with Pang Dong Lai’s slogan, “Freedom and love”, there’s a slight echo of the “free granola bar, nap pod, good vibes” tyranny of tech’s punishing work culture.)
At heart, “unhappy days” aren’t that different from duvet, wellness or mental health days, those other corporate concessions to the various manifestations of late capitalism’s malaise. Still, whatever you call it, a noquestions-asked day off is definitely better than those team awaydays where you plant some trees or pick litter in corporate-branded T-shirts, or online work-life balance seminars (or indeed the lunchtime yoga in the library offered by the law firm that I used to work for, with the partner who was shouting at you about spreadsheets an hour ago downward-dogging next to you in his