LinkedIn has given its workforce of over 15,900 employees an entire week off to help them unplug, recharge, and avoid burnout. Starting Monday (April 5), employees of The Mountain View, California-based organisation can enjoy the paid week off.

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CNN quoted LinkedIn’s chief people officer, Teuila Hanson, as saying: “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.”

Only a core team of workers will continue to work during the week. However, they will be given off later.

The Microsoft-owned firm had started to operate remotely more than a year ago as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and has been surveying its staff regularly. Last summer, the survey disclosed a shift in employee sentiment. The CNN report adds Hanson as saying that the “weight of the pandemic really took its toll” and the company noticed during the survey that “there is clear burnout”. So, LinkedIn created an initiative called ‘LiftUp!’ — it includes burnout training, no-meeting days, and mental health well-being.

During the paid week-off, the firm will provide employees who may feel lonely the option of taking part in daily activities such as volunteering for worthy causes through “random acts of kindness”.

Many American tech firms have adopted work-from-home in 2020 to fight against the spread of the coronavirus. Twitter, for example, has extended the remote working facility for its employees indefinitely.

LinkedIn, too, does not expect its employees to start coming back to its offices until September. This apart, it plans to make it a standard practice to let them work from home for as much as half of the time.

Microsoft has acquired LinkedIn in mid-2016 for $26.2 billion. Doing so made the American tech firm step into the world of social networking and add a new tool for its efforts to boost services for business.

First Published:Apr 5, 2021 11:36 AM IST