In the pursuit of improved holistic wellness, there are ingenious, powerful, and yet remarkably simple ways to innovate by way of “suppression” (not addition: more of this and more of that). Google provides such an example in the area of mental wellness at work.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the ever-rising problem of unwellness in the workplace. However, several ideas aimed at enhancing our productivity while simultaneously reducing our stress levels and the occurrence rate of burnout have been tested and are becoming mainstream. The four-day workweek, more flexible and fewer hours, and more recently, the pandemic-induced opportunity to work from home (WFH) some of the time, come to mind.
And now, here is Google’s idea (it had been thought of before but not at the scale of the tech giant, which gives it major traction): the “no-meeting week.” This is not for every business, of course, and not THE miracle solution to stress and burnout. Still, it addresses head-on a phenomenon that so many professionals dread: the never-ending series of endless and often quasi-pointless meetings. Maybe a new arrow in the quiver of the anti-burnout armory?
