Working Den, a website filled with tools to help remote workers maintain healthy routines and prevent burnout, launched as a free service this month. Developed in the UK by freelancer Daniel Hall in collaboration with workplace consultant Bertie van Wyk, Working Den is designed for workers to use throughout their workday. It includes exercise and stretching guides, calming nature videos, playlists of background noise, mental health assessment quizzes, and a pomodoro productivity timer. It also features a notification system that reduces eye strain; every 20 minutes, Working Den can remind users to look away from their screens for 20 seconds. In an interview with Fast Company, Hall said Working Den may include a feature that pairs users up with one another to answer questions, as a way to combat loneliness.
Burnout is not a new issue, per se. But the pandemic and our collective shift to remote work are causing consumers to feel the ‘burn’ more than ever: One-third of workers globally are experiencing increased burnout during the pandemic. And when your office is your living room is your kitchen is your conference room...it’s little wonder that remote workers worldwide are citing the “lack of separation between work and life” as their #1 workplace stressor.
Yet even though burnout is pervasive and can result in everything from insomnia to high blood pressure, it’s one of those issues employees often feel they can’t talk to their employers about. And employers, noticing long hours and a lack of vacations being taken, have begun resorting to extreme measures. Companies like DBS Bank in India are enacting mandatory 5-day vacations for their staffers, while Chegg in the US forcibly blocked out employees’ calendars so they could enjoy Fridays off.
Consumers and companies everywhere are trying to figure out how to remain productive during this time, while simultaneously staving off negative mental and physical health impacts. If your brand has found an effective way to address burnout for your employees — or overcome another common, operational struggle businesses are facing during the pandemic — could you release that solution publicly? Or share helpful tools, like the ones Working Den offers? After all, the best way to tackle shared problems, on a wider level, is by sharing solutions!
Stay healthy,
The TrendWatching content team
