Many workers who take leaves 'less likely to return’: Canadian researcher on how employers can use flexible micro-leaves to support workers, reduce turnover
A new report reveals that although the idea of formal “heartbreak leave” may sound unconventional, the policy already exists — albeit informally.
A recent survey by Zety found that one in three U.S. workers have taken sick days or paid time off (PTO) to recover from a breakup, with 43 per cent saying their productivity suffered and 38 per cent reporting lower motivation.
According to Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Ottawa, Canadian employees suffering emotional and even financial challenges due to relationship or family dissolution must handle those issues “off the side of their desks” with no formal workplace support to turn to.
Otherwise, they are using their paid vacation days to deal with the crises, which causes problems of employee health, retention and productivity – and also puts Canada behind other countries in HR practices.
“We're very distinctly different from Europe, where they treat holidays very seriously,” she says.
“In our research, we were finding that [Canadians] were using holiday days to deal with all of this other stuff that they were doing and not truly taking holidays.”
Disclosure, trust and implementing leave policies
According to Bourgeault, flexible, shorter and more frequent leaves from work are “opportunities to increase productivity,” leading to reduced turnover and higher employer loyalty.
“The greater opportunity there is to be able to pause and break with your work, especially when you're dealing with significant life events, the more you feel an affinity to your work because they have treated you like a human being,” she adds.
Bourgeault’s research on mental-health-related leaves among professional workers found that manager-employee relationships play a crucial part in the equation, as employees will struggle to ask for help from a manager they don’t connect with or trust.
“It can be very difficult to disclose the reasons for a requested leave to one's manager, and it varies depending on how good of a relationship, how good of a manager it is,” Bourgeault says.
“Whenever we develop a policy, we need to be mindful about: how is that policy going to be implemented, how is it going to work?”
Short flexible leave policies and return to work
Most employees in the Zety survey believed a modest amount of time off was sufficient after a breakup, with 40 per cent saying they needed at least three days of paid time off and many indicating even less.
One of Bourgeault’s main findings from her research on employee mental health and leave is that long, open-ended absences can make returning to work harder for professional employees. She explains that this is partly due to employees putting off taking leave until they are already exhausted, due to stigma and workload concerns.
For this reason, she urges Canadian employers to take a serious look at offering “micro-leaves.” After extensive research into employee mental health issues around taking leave, reasons for taking leave and returning to work after leave, her efforts have resulted in a clear takeaway.
“Long story short, what we found is that many professional workers do not take a leave, and those who have taken a leave are less likely to return,” Bourgeault says.
“We need to shift to greater opportunities to take short leaves from work.”
This change would require an organizational culture shift, she says, to one that encourages shorter, more frequent leaves for a variety of reasons, as an accepted tool for productivity and employee well-being.
Life events, heartbreak and invisible labour
The Zety survey underscores that relationship breakdowns affect work in more than one way.
According to the data, 23 per cent of workers said breakups impaired their decision-making or problem-solving, 25 per cent reported effects on attendance or punctuality and 17 per cent said heartbreak negatively impacted their relationships with colleagues or managers.
Bourgeault emphasizes that these effects are compounded by the “invisible labour” involved in relationship or family dissolution, such as dealing with real estate, legal and caregiver practicalities.
“When there's a dissolution of a family, when there's a dissolution of a relationship, that has a psychological impact, it affects your ability to focus,” she says, stressing that a micro-leave offered freely can enable an employee to take the time to deal with those issues without also juggling work demands.
“Being able to just focus on that and getting it done and not having to do it off the side of your desk while you're trying to land that big proposal,” Bourgeault says.
“With a very clear, open, honest conversation about who is going to take over tasks while you are on this micro-leave.”
Designing micro leave policies without stigma
Beyond the length of leave, Bourgeault argues that how employers label time off can influence whether employees feel comfortable using it: Zety’s data shows that while a third of workers believe employers should offer a dedicated “heartbreak leave,” a much larger portion are worried about stigma, with 65 per cent saying they would feel uncomfortable requesting it.
Bourgeault recommends structuring micro-leave policies so employees can request time off under a general, legitimate category without having to provide intimate details, while still allowing HR to assess health and safety implications and plan a return path.
“Anybody who goes on a leave should have a clear path to return to work once they're on that leave,” she says.
“And one that's more flexible … to destigmatize the process by which one would request a leave.”
