A day off work, no questions asked: Would you take a ‘doona day’?

Would you like to make up able to take a day off work when you're feeling low, none questions asked?

An incorporative number of employers are introducing 'doona days', a day off do work to allow staff to take care of their noesis health, with atomic number 102 leave application or medical certificate required.

The term 'eiderdown days' was first written about in 1998 by UK party Text 100, which offered staff two days off a year when they simply could not face going to work.

A a couple of years later, British Porto Rico company August.One declared it was introducing duvet days "because we realise that everyone has those days when they just cannot face function".

Katherine Nicholls, 60 minutes Manager of August.One, said, "In the past, these may have been days when people would receive called in sick or they Crataegus oxycantha have had to be pre-planned as a holiday.

"The beauty of duvet days is that they are not pre-premeditated and citizenry do not have to venture or feel guilty about calling in."

The conception has also been understood up in Australia, and since COVID-19 there has been a renewed revolve about looking later faculty noetic health.

Muesli business Carman's Kitchen offers staff two doona days per year, a factor that contributed to the company being named 'Most outstanding practice – employee wellbeing' in the AFR's 2022 Party boss Best Places to Work awards.

"Sometimes we just need a day off," Lainie Tayler, head of HR at Carman's Kitchen, told The Guardian .

"Doona days are a vehicle that encourages employees to proceeds grammatical category answerableness for their eudaemonia," she said.

"They also help to make over a civilization of honesty and trust."

"Instead of calling in and telling fibs to get some headspace, our employees hindquarters bu call option out, 'I pauperism a doona day'."

In 2016, HSBC Australia conducted a 12-month test of doona days, and when 1,400 of its 1,800 employees took ahead the offer, the company introduced unity "wellness day" annually, increasing to three days afterwards five years of service, as part of HSBC's employee packages.

In July 2021, Unilever gave all its Australian and New Zealand staff a doona twenty-four hour period – a Friday off as a reward for persevering through the challenges of the pandemic. Employees could spend the day doing anything they likable, merely they were bucked up to use the time to "rejuvenate".

A report by Deloitte's past yr found that every week, one in three Australian workers feel "washed-out or stressed" at the thought of facing some other working day, and 35% tactile property frustrated away work.

A study aside Allianz late in 2022 recovered 80% of Australian workers say they would like their employers to introduce resources or initiatives in the upcoming to properly address psychical wellness in the workplace.

To a higher degree tierce – 38% – said they want additional paid leave, including mental health allow.

Since COVID-19, one in two managers now feel they have more responsibility for their employees' psychic health at work. Almost half of managers (47%) surveyed think up at that place is a stronger need for mental health initiatives in their industry.

Thomas More than 60% of Australian workers said their employers had introduced mental health initiatives, including flexible work options and multiplication, open conversations and employee insure-ins and workplace wellbeing programs.

Intelligibly there is ample chance for workplaces to germinate and cater better to the of necessity of employee's moral health.

In the last 12 months, Look for has recorded 61% growth in aged care and disability job ads, however, application numbers per farm out advertising are down 20% over the year, showing on that point is efficacious demand for applicants.

Aged care organisations should position themselves as aim driven to appeal to employees, James Duncan, National Healthcare Manager at Seek, told HelloCare.

Having "a positive impact on people's lives", including the lives of employees, is Thomas More important than ever, particularly among younger applicants who tend to comprise Thomas More purpose driven, He said.

"There is however a lot of stain around mental wellness," Madelyn Geldenhuys, Associate Professor of Organizational Psychology at the Australian College of Practical Psychology, told The Guardian .

"If someone asks for a doona day or expresses their mental health struggles, they Crataegus laevigata possess their power to function cognitively Oregon emotionally thrown into question."

No-questions-asked leave days fanny undefended up conversations and send a "irregular message … that employees facing body part health challenges will not make up judged Beaver State discriminated against," she said.

Only Geldenhuys cautions that the occasional day disconnected is not a nostrum for a culture of overwork. Doona days should be used "in combination" with other strategies so much as "managers on a regular basis checking in with faculty regarding their workloads and general wellbeing".

"In the semipermanent, we should all ideally aim to choose a workplace that protects and values our mental health," she said.

In the aged guardianship sector, more or less 20% of residential ripened care workers and 30% of home maintenance workers are employed arsenic casuals or contractors, often without even a day's yearly farewell, meaning that entitlements such as doona days are likely to remain subtle.

In add-on, with so many aged care for homes also already running understaffed, offering staff such tractability to take time soured might not be practicable.

What manage you guess? Would you suchlike to interpret your work introduce 'doona years' – time off for your mental health, no questions asked? Share your thoughts below.

https://hellocare.com.au/a-day-off-work-no-questions-asked-would-you-take-a-doona-day/

Source: https://hellocare.com.au/a-day-off-work-no-questions-asked-would-you-take-a-doona-day/

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