Broke up? Take some leave!

[SapphireStar]

Seriously! In Japan now, some companies are allowing employees to take days off if they have had a break up!

Tokyo-based marketing firm Hime & Company recently announced that employees going through rough break-ups can take paid time off. The company says more “heartache leaves” are offered as employees get older. According to reports, the company also gives staff paid time off to go shopping during sale seasons. A spokesperson for the firm says that heartache leaves are reasonable because it allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work feeling refreshed. CEO Miki Hiradate was quoted as saying “Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off… Just like when you get sick.”

Wow, how bout that? Should all companies allow this? There is a downside to it as sometimes it takes a good while for someone to get over a breakup. It depends on the relationship and I can see some people would be sick enough to take advantage and pretend to break up with partners in order to get time off!

So, good idea or a disaster waiting to happen???

 

[Koloth]

I would think going to work would help a person stop thinking about their problems faster. Because you would then be forced to worry about issues at work instead. It is always good to keep busy when something has upset you. That way you do not have too much time to feel sorry for yourself. Self pity is unproductive.

 

[SapphireStar]

Indeed, you go to work and keep yourself busy. Better then moping at home and getting upset just as easily.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

That's the way I see it too, but it depends on your job. I end up with a lot of time to myself on mine, so that wouldn't really help to forget. It in fact makes things far worse. So if you can take the time off and make yourself busy then that's great.
Not a bad idea though.

 

[Mitsuki]

What in the world...? I'm sorry, but that is a bit ridiculous, in my opinion. I can understand and sympathize more for those who are married and had gotten a divorce...but for those who are in the early stages of relationship...=/ A bit too much.

I know that it's hard to abide with the whole "you shouldn't bring your personal problems in work" sorta thing. And if someone really can't handle personal problems in the work area, then sure, let that person go home...but please no paid time off. That is not fair to those who are also going through a major crisis in life but choose to remain at work due to a dire need of income. Everyone has their problems...some choose to bottle it up inside and still stay okay...some choose to let it out and not remain okay.

Something like "break-ups" no matter how rough...shouldn't be an excuse enough to get a paid time off. Let them call off if they wish - not the other way around.

 

[Rockman X]

Buncha pussies

Honestly, I'd expect something ridiculous like this to happen in America, not a country as work-obsessed as Japan.

I would think going to work would help a person stop thinking about their problems faster. Because you would then be forced to worry about issues at work instead. It is always good to keep busy when something has upset you. That way you do not have too much time to feel sorry for yourself. Self pity is unproductive.

Quite true. Course that would become invalid if you had a mindless job, like factory work, fast food, retail, etc. where you didn't have to concentrate on your work.

 

[Kenpachi]

So true, people don't need to wallow in self-pity after a break-up, what they need is something to take their mind off of it until they have dealt with it...
Honestly, that's the craziest idea I've heard in a long time

 

[Valkyrur]

Wow, this is really interesting... Gee, i suppose this may very well be useful, considering people tend to be wallowing in self-pity after that, crying all day long.
It helps that this is actually in place. What i worry about is people abusing it.

 

[Bambi]

I suppose it would depend on how long you had been with said person and how messy the breakup was, although when something is on mymind Id rather keep busy than sit around thinking about it. It seems abit of a daft idea really, but at least they care I suppose.....?

I didn't need time off when I left my exes, I just went in and got on with my work (apart from one of them, I was on maternity leave at the time)

 

[Ironman]

well I'm unemployed but when i do get a job this would be great, infact when i do get a job i will try and get time off if i break up with a girlfriend

 

[Dark Tidus]

I think people will just abuse it. I'm sure some will find a way to get out of work and everybody will be taking days off because they lied.

 

[Fatal Impurity]

This is just crazy, and whats worse is just how exploitable it is. I mean in theory it would be a great idea but the problem is how many people faking breakups or even faking relationships altogether would be enormous! Not only that but your surely to get people who would after every breakup no matter how small taking time off just because they can not because they need time to "heal".

Something like this is too hard to monitor to be effective to the people that actually might legitimately need it.

 

[Fusilli]

I guess people just deal with grief in different ways, but if it was me I know that going to work would certainly take my mind off my worries. Certainly seems a better and more productive option that staying in bed wallowing in my own self-pity whilst eating my body weight in Haagen-Dazs.

Mind you, I guess it depends on how serious the situation was, and also depends on your job aswell. If you can find other ways to keep yourself busy, or talk to people and sort yourself out, then having time off would be a good thing.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I'm for and against it, though I think they should be allowed off for a few days at the most. Anyway, like people have already said, if it takes their mind off it then it's great, however, it could also work the other way because if they go to work and they have lost their concentration and can't work as well as what they usually do then it's pointless them being there to be honest

 

[Mitsuki]

Right. I have no problem if they let them get a time off. The issue I have is that in the article, it stated that not only is it a time off, but a "paid time off".

Now that...is different matter.

 

[jam]

It sounds similar to what they did in sweden where they've now given an extended paternaty and maternaty leave in order to give the child a secure attachment to its parents. This will most likely result in more betterly educated future generations.

But what on earth is this doing for future generations exept rewarding them for spinelessness.

 

[Donald Trump]

the japanese are very good at productivity, so that is already a thing in its favour for me.
if someone has just been dumped, they wont be able to concentrate as well, leading to bottlemecks or even mistakes, which would be costly.
and if someone has just been dumped they would harldy feel like going to work.

its really just another sick leave day

 

[jam]

But you won't feel any better than before you broke up after the leave. I say you should put up with it like a man or a woman and not a little one.

 

[Prince Oberyn Martel]

Hello Mr. Employer, me and my none-existent girlfriend of 5 minuets have just broken up and I require payed Heartbreak leave for the next 6 months.

Yeah this could work, bring it to the UK!

 

[aerocrystal]

Eh, so what, sick days are exploited too. It's hard to prove that you are sick and its hard to judge who needs time off for this kind of cold or more time off for that kind of cold. Maybe this is just the employers way of encouraging people who aren't mentally stable to stay home. Japanese do tend to be work obsessed that perhaps the employers had problems with people insisting they should be at work who seem to upset to be there.

Companies don't just give time off to be nice. They have to have done some study somewhere that forcing someone to be somewhere when they aren't emotionally ready to be there either leads to no work or mistakes and if people are given the time they need, the get over the issue faster and get back into work. Besides, after you go through a bad break up, most emotional people tend to favor whoever gives them sympathy whatsoever. IF they see their employer giving them sympathy that will just make them more loyal in the future.

Anyway, seeing physical pain as worse than emotional pain is a VALUE judgment you have been taught to make. Depending on where you are in the world, if someone knew you were emotional they would be very loathe to ask you to do anything you didnt want to. Calling the Swiss pussies for allowing more time to bond with children is also a value judgement. Looked at in a different way, isn't it kind of silly that we would value making money for a created corporation over the natural bond between parent and child? When you look back on your death bed, are you really gonna be thinking of how many days you toughed it out at work, or how many memories you had with your loved ones?

I personally have seen people who have just broken up with someone in worse shape than if they were in a cold and more likely to make irrational decisions and to be mean to other people.