Marriage comes with wedding leave, illness with sick leave—but what about emotional leave? Recently, Ms. Zhu, an employee at a certain website, shared on social media that she requested a day off due to low morale. Not only was her request approved, but it was also paid leave. Netizens playfully dubbed this "emotional leave."
The website's manager explained: "With the hot weather and current high work pressure, many employees are prone to anxiety.A bad mood inevitably affects work efficiency, which in turn impacts company development." Rather than having employees work inefficiently, it's better to let them take a day off for self-regulation. "Caring for employees' emotional well-being by granting 'mood leave' makes them appreciate the company and feel its human-centered management, thereby stimulating their work potential."
However, the company also stipulates that each employee can take a maximum of two days of "mood leave" per month, with additional days considered only for extremely severe cases.Currently, the "emotional leave" policy has been piloted for one month and has been well-received by employees. The "emotional leave" announcement quickly sparked heated discussions online. Netizen "BlueSky20102010" commented: "Very humane! This is a great idea! Worth HR professionals and bosses taking note of and adopting!" Netizen "HeartAsPureAsIceEveryday" wrote: "I hope draft legislation for this leave will emerge soon." Of course, some netizens expressed differing views. User "A Tea Fragrance Called Zen" argued: "What if someone feels down 20 days out of the month? That's unrealistic!" User "Ke Wangwen" also commented: "It's a nice, humane idea, but relies on self-discipline—the risks aren't small."
Some corporate executives argued that while humane management is necessary, implementing "mood leave" in companies is impractical and difficult to enforce: "Once this loophole is opened, you might encounter employees in a bad mood every day, which would inevitably disrupt daily operations." Experts cautioned that when implementing "mood leave," it's crucial to strike the right balance, assess execution risks, and prioritize feasibility to prevent mass leave requests.