Pizza, Populism, and Preventable Burnout

Jon Davies

Jon Davies

Behavioural Science at Leafyard

9 windows

Barely sentient, Wotsit-hued criminal Donald Trump, earlier this week, claimed the cure for depression is "working your ass off."

Had an interesting chat with a firm last week. Their 'wellness strategy'? Monthly pizza parties. ...... yes, really. In 2024.

It's how many companies approach employee wellbeing - throwing ideas at the wall and hoping something sticks—the corporate equivalent of treating a headache by banging your head against a desk.

Want to know what an actual wellness strategy looks like? Stop treating mental health as an HR initiative and start treating it like what it is: a business-critical problem that needs the same rigour as your product roadmap.

That means stopping the performative nonsense and asking the hard questions:

  • How are your KPIs affecting mental health?
  • What's the real cost of your "fast-paced environment"?
  • Why are your best people burning out or leaving?
  • What are we doing about presenteeism? ( which is 90% of your problem )
  • How can we provide meaningful support to our people?
  • When do we stop convincing ourselves that EAPs work?

Because here's the truth: Without a proper strategy, you're just throwing money at symptoms while ignoring the cause. You can't fix systemic issues with superficial solutions. And your people know it.

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