Nike ‘powers down’ for full week to tackle mental health

Yesterday staff at Nike’s US head office begun their full week off from work to help support their mental health ahead of their return to the office in September.

Sharing the news on LinkedIn, Matt Marrazzo the firm’s head of insights, said that the HQ is “powering down for a full week”.

Marrazzo continued: “Our senior leaders are all sending a clear message: Take the time to unwind, destress and spend time with your loved ones.”

He added simply that employees should “not work”.

Reflecting on the past year, Marrazzo wrote on the professional networking site that taking time out for recovery after a crisis such as Covid was essential if employees are able to work to their full potential.

“Taking time for rest and recovery is key to performing well and staying sane,” he explained.

“This past year has been rough – we’re all human! and living through a traumatic event! – but I’m hopeful that the empathy and grace we continue to show our teammates will have a positive impact on the culture of work moving forward (sic).”

Marrazzo noted that this was a move that allowed Nike to truly acknowledge that it “can prioritise mental health and still get work done”.

“Support your people. It’s good business but it’s also the right thing to do,” he concluded.

Positive response

The post shared by Marrazzo has garnered over 21,000 reactions and hundreds of comments, with many praising the move to support employee mental wellbeing.

Coco Church, founder of Cartel, said: “This is why Nike has always been an industry leading Titan. Their progressive initiatives & creative campaigns will always be in the frontier of the market! So happy they are prioritising mental health. A mentally happy company is often overlooked but incomparable.”

Michele Schneider, senior designer at MGA Entertainment, simply branded it as “incredible”.

Nikki Grassis also wrote: “Very exciting and necessary.” However, she asked whether line workers and store employees were receiving the same benefit and what could be done to support these other staff members.

Similar comments like Grassis’ prompted Marrazzo to share that a lot more progress is needed in that regard.

“There’s a lot more progress to be made in this space but this signal from the top down felt like a serious step in the right direction,” he continued.

Wellbeing days

Due to the impact the pandemic has had on employee health and wellbeing, many businesses have rolled out wellbeing days or wellness festivals to tackle the issue.

Earlier this year for example Bumble closed all of its offices to give staff a week off work. Meanwhile, both Channel 4 and Aviva gave staff a day off this year to help improve wellbeing.

Lastly, AkzoNobel demonstrated its commitment to health and wellbeing with the launch of a month-long wellness festival that was held throughout March this year.