Not Sick Leave – Heartache Leave!
By: Beth McHugh 2009
We are all familiar with sick leave, either paid or unpaid, as part of our employment package. But a Tokyo-based firm, Hime and Company, have introduced the concept of “heartache leave” to their employees.
The powers that be at Hime and Company have recognized that the emotional impact of a relationship breakup has a profound effect on their employee’s ability to satisfactorily fulfill their jobs. And hence they allow their employees time to get over the most severe early stages of a long term relationship breakup,
This makes sense as women in such a situation are likely to come to work and spend much of their day “talking it out” with the girls in the office. This naturally induces not only a loss of productivity for the heartache-filled but also reduced productivity for the listeners. It’s the emotional equivalent of bringing a bad cold virus into the workplace.
Men, of course, deal with emotion issues differently and are less likely to spend time “talking it out” with the boys. However, they are more prone to workplace injuries or serious mistakes in office-type situations.
Hence this Tokyo company as made the decision to give their employees
“heartache leave” so as to avoid costly fallouts to their
own operations. Their opinion is that not everyone needs maternity leave
but most people need heartache leave. The leave increases with age of
the employee, so that employees aged 30 years and over are entitled
to three days per year to "get it out of their system".