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Forget the crying room, here’s a meeting massage: Are we taking workers’ well-being too far?
More empathetic management is welcome, but some activities belong outside the office.
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Today, leading edge companies are hiring chief well-being officers, to ensure employees are their best selves at the office and can do their jobs accordingly.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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Several years ago, when plans were being drawn up to refurbish our newsroom, we were asked to submit requests for what we’d like to have in the new space. The usual asks surfaced – a Google-style pantry, more booths for private phone calls, a recreation room with beanbags.
Amid the buzz over new desks and better lighting, some of us half-joked that what we really needed was a crying room. Yes, by that we meant a room we could run to and shed a few quick tears in when the pressure of producing a page one lead in the final 30 minutes of a gruelling graveyard shift got to us. Up till then, we had been making do with the ladies’ toilet, but it would have been nice to have cushioned seating, soft-glow lamps and walls that muffled, not echoed, our sobs.
