LAST week news made the rounds that a Chinese supermarket chain offered its employees up to 10 days’ “unhappiness leave” and that has triggered debate in a number of countries around a single topic: Should workers get unhappiness leave?

Here in Jamaica, employment stakeholders say they have no issue with an implementation of unhappy leave, equating it to mental health days.

President of the Jamaica Employers Federation (JEF) Wayne Chen, in sharing the view that while the novel concept of unhappy leave could possibly work locally, said it may not have to be as structured or entrenched in employment contracts.

“As an employer I wouldn’t institute it as law to say you will or have to, what I would, however, do is to build some amount of public awareness around the practice, offering insight on how, from a company level, it can be implemented to foster happy workplace cultures. As it is now, a lot of organisations locally, including the JEF, do promote and try to advocate for that good work-life balance for employees,” he said during an interview with the Jamaica Observer last week.

“If employers want healthy, sustainable and prosperous organisations, they have to be mindful of the people that keep their operations going. As a result, I believe it may be necessary for them to support a culture of happiness in order to ensure that their staff remain positive and motivated, as this often forms the base of business success,” he added.

He said that while unhappy leave may not yet be commonplace, it should be noted that there is now a growing list of companies that have been practising similar policies.

“There are several companies locally [small, medium and large] of which I know, in which the bosses know that their employees need a break and also try to give this to them. In most of these cases, this tends to be done in a more proactive way, sometimes manifested in sporting and other social activities,” he stated.

Adding that, “The reality now is also that we now operate in an era where workplace dynamics is vastly different from what existed back then. We now have a new generation of workers made up of the younger millennials and GenZers who often value time more than money. As employers this, therefore, forces us to also see things from their perspectives and to create workplace policies that are in keeping with the needs of modern workers,” he added.

The JEF head said that with many mental health issues ie depression, often triggered by unhappiness, the issues, though differing to some extent, cannot be seen as mutually exclusive.

In agreement with these sentiments, counselling psychologist Dr Curtis Sweeney, who has been working with the GraceKennedy staff for more than two decades, said there is indeed a definite correlation between happiness and good mental health.

“If people are unhappy, it’s usually likely that there is something emotional going on which could be some health or psychosocial factors that may be occurring, especially now when people become unhappy for various things. For these reasons, the issue of unhappy leave, I think, is something that may be worthwhile looking into.

“If someone is unhappy and needs to apply for time-off, it seems tantamount to a mental health break because happiness has to do with one’s emotion and their whole mindset; therefore, I see them as being very similar. I’m already in full support for mental health breaks, as these for me, these are very necessary because people at times do need that time-out to just renew and repair mentally and emotionally,” Sweeney said.

Chinese businessman Yu Donglai, founder and chairman of Pang Dong Lai, a retail chain in China’s Henan province, who popularised the concept of unhappy leave, brought it to the fore after he recently announced that his employees would now be eligible to apply for an additional 10 days of this leave at their convenience. Under the scheme employees can choose to stay away from work if they are not feeling happy and the request for such leave cannot be denied by company administrators.

“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,” Donglai declared during a presentation at China Supermarket Week 2024.

The Chinese businessman, in advocating for a better work-life balance, said he wanted his employees to decide their own rest time independently, allowing them to enjoy ample relaxation hours outside of work.

His action comes against the backdrop of findings from a survey on workplace anxiety in China, in which it was revealed that over 65 per cent of the country’s workforce were largely found to be either tired or unhappy at work. Much of the reasons cited behind their unhappiness are low wages, complicated interpersonal relationships and the glorification of the overtime culture.

Donglai, who has long criticised the culture of Chinese workplaces, has for years championed the need for better work cultures, labelling long work hours and the absence of growth opportunities as unethical.

As part of his new employment policy, employees of the Chinese business tycoon will now be allowed to work for seven hours a day during a five-day workweek. Additionally, they will also benefit from some 30 to 40 days of annual leave and five days off during the Lunar New Year. Further to this, the company also introduced a job-level certification system in which lower tiered workers, such as janitors, will now get the opportunity to earn up to 500,000 yuan (US$70,000) per annum.

CEO and vice-chairman of Pan Jamaica Group Limited Jeffrey Hall, who shares management responsibilities for large companies such as the Jamaica Producer’s Group, Kingston Wharves and others, in expressing his views on the issue, said he is all for employee well-being and an appropriate work-like balance, regarding these as matters with which employers must treat very seriously.

Citing the diverse operations of his group, he, however, said the new measure while it may work for one company may not work for all, as a one-size-fits-all policy approach may not work in all cases. The JP managing director said that while the adoption of unhappy leaves may not be the policy his company adopts, there are other available channels, of similar effect, through which employee satisfaction and well-being can be catered to.

“Different businesses will have different requirements. In our diverse operation there are several business and each of them have their own measure to achieve staff well-being results. Some will have flexi-work, work-from-home as well as different types of leave entitlements — all of which were designed to maintain that work-life balance and to ensure employee engagement and satisfaction,” he said in his views on the topical issue.

For human resources consultant Joni-Gaye Cawley, the new concept which she also deems useful, will also make way for companies to make greater investments in staff.

“For those companies that will set aside funds for staff well-being initiatives, this can have a positive impact on their bottom line as happier staff are usually more likely to be more productive in the workplace,” she said.

Cawley, who generally regarded the practice a good one, said it may be a good step for companies that may choose to introduce it. However, as like everything else, she said it can be abused, so proper guidelines and the necessary controls would have to be put in place.

“For people of honest integrity, I believe it could work very efficiently, though for those disingenuous ones, it may open up the practice to abuse. As a gauge companies could therefore allot a certain amount of days per year, making provision for those staff who become unhappy throughout the year, for whatever genuine reason, to apply for one or all of these days to recalibrate and reset, similar to what normally happens with a sick leave,”Cawley said.