The world is into the second year of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and work from home (WFH) has become a way of life. But, what initially appeared attractive and convenient is now presenting a downside. A recent study concluded that WFH meant longer hours, fewer sick days and fewer bonuses. And finally, burnout.

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A study by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), published in April this year, said that on average an employee did around six hours of unpaid overtime a week and many simply just worked through periods of illness or injury.

Witnessing burnouts among its employees, companies are resorting to various measures, such as paid breaks and workcations . The latest company to do so is Bumble, the women-centric dating app. The company on Tuesday temporarily closed all of its offices this week to combat workplace stress.

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The company’s 700 staff worldwide have been told to switch off and focus on themselves. A senior executive, tweeting about the announcement, said that Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd had made the move “having correctly intuited our collective burnout”.

Earlier, companies such as LinkedIn, Mozilla, PwC, and The New York Times shut down the company entirely for some collective paid time off.

In April this year, LinkedIn employees worldwide were given a paid week off starting April to unplug, recharge and avoid burnout. “We wanted to make sure we could give them something really valuable, and what we think is most valuable right now is time for all of us to collectively walk away,” said Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn’s chief people officer, who joined the company in June, reports cnn.com.

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Hanson said that the company’s staff surveys showed a clear rise in burnout over the past year, with manager burnout soaring 78% between the first and fourth quarters of 2020.

And several hundred people, including members of the skeleton crew who stayed back to keep the place running, logged on for a cooking class, a talent show, a meditation class, and a magic show.

At Mozilla, the creators of Firefox, global week off was a way to fight burnout and fatigue among its more than 700 employees.

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Many other companies have followed suit, among them are Deloitte, Hindustan Unilever, PwC, Godrej and GSK. They are giving offs to employees to destress and avoid fatigue. Deloitte India created a “holiday pool” that allows employees to take leaves over and above their allocated leaves.

Food delivery platform Swiggy transitioned to a four-day workweek for all its employees amid partial lockdowns in most urban centres amid a surging pandemic.