Adore Beauty, Linktree and Rome2Rio join growing list of businesses having ‘tools down days’ during lockdown

Retailer Adore Beauty and social media startup Linktree are among the latest Australian businesses to give their entire teams days off to focus on their wellbeing during lockdowns. 

Last week, beauty brand Go-To Skincare and e-commerce startup Carted shared their plans to give all of their employees ‘down the tools days’ to simply have a break. 

On Thursday, Adore Beauty chief executive Tennealle O’Shannessy shared on LinkedIn that her team would be “downing tools and taking a recharge day” today. 

In her post, O’Shannessy reflected on how hard the Adore Beauty team has worked over the past 12 months through the pandemic, and said she is proud of the team’s resilience and positive approach in such difficult times. 

“I know our team has found this lockdown more difficult, as they are trying to manage home schooling and work, missing their family and friends and experiencing lockdown fatigue,” she said. 

“It’s so important we, as leaders, hear our team when they say they are tired and need to recharge. Having time to rest and recover is crucial for our mental health.”

O’Shannessy said the Melbourne-based Adore Beauty has also introduced a number of other changes to help support the team’s mental health and wellness, including trailing a meeting-free ‘focus time’ to allow employees to work on projects that require high-level thinking and personally checking in with each team members to ask how they are really going. 

Linktree also revealed yesterday it will be giving its team two paid, company-wide days off on Fridays. 

“What do you do when your team has been working extremely hard, there’s a global pandemic and local restrictions don’t allow for a vacation? Give them two company-wide days off, which means there are zero expectations on checking emails or making it to meetings,” the company posted on LinkedIn. 

Linktree co-founder Alex Zaccaria has previously spoken out about the importance of business owners prioritising their mental health and shared his experience of trying to work under high levels of stress.

“It is incredibly important to be talking about it, now more than ever, and for founders to recognise that it’s pretty easy to slip into just working all day every day, because the days are kind of blurring into each other now,” he said last year. 

Travel startup Rome2Rio is also asking its employees to all “put the tools down for the day” on Friday, September 3. 

Rome2Rio’s senior people and operations manager Sally Wallace shared the news on LinkedIn last week, saying “sometimes the best thing to do is stop and take a moment”.

If you or someone you know is at risk, contact: Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636; Lifeline on 13 11 14; Headspace on 1800 650 890; or The Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.

You can also reach Beyond Blue’s COVID-19 support line on 1800 512 348 and access small business mental health resources via the My Business Health website.