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Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#171

Post by ryandrake »

handmodel wrote: post #160
gpm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some things can't really be measured numerically, I think this is one. I think you do things like talking to people afterwards and see if they think it was a good idea, looking at attrition rates and try and guess if it moved them, looking at whatever productivity metrics you have, and at the end you probably have a gut feeling on whether or not it was a good idea... That's probably the best that you get.

I think the argument would be that this actually could be measured short term (probably all the staff will say they feel better in two weeks) but if in Q3 the CEO realizes they need to roll out some features before a Q4 quarterly call then what could have been a 12 week project will turn into a cramped 10 week project.

Yea, this is what always gets me about taking personal vacation time. You take a week off, but that week isn't yours for free. Your expected work keeps accumulating during that week. You're just taking a week of time-debt which you will need to pay off in the form of much higher workload over the following few weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if these employees all get back to work and find their workload doubles for a time just to catch back up!

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#172

Post by claytongulick »

ramesh31 wrote: post #69
silicon2401 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very subjective statement. The pandemic has been bar none the best period of my life. Increased physical and social distance from other people, no need to emote in public thanks to masks, no need to commute, greater accommodation for non-social options like self-checkouts. My physical and mental health have skyrocketed, and as a result I feel like I've been on vacation for a year and half, despite only taki…

I've never been so envious of happily married people in my life. Being single throughout this ordeal has broken me mentally, particularly at an age (31) where I'm staring down the last couple years of being able to meet someone my age. And the prospects coming out of it are grim. For people with a happy home life, this may have been a good time. But for the isolated, work from home, single people with no long term so…

I met my wife at age 42, been happily married two years now.

I've come to learn that relationships and my ability to navigate them have only improved with age.

I look back at myself and how I treated people in my 20s and cringe.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#173

Post by [deleted] »

ramesh31 wrote: post #69
silicon2401 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very subjective statement. The pandemic has been bar none the best period of my life. Increased physical and social distance from other people, no need to emote in public thanks to masks, no need to commute, greater accommodation for non-social options like self-checkouts. My physical and mental health have skyrocketed, and as a result I feel like I've been on vacation for a year and half, despite only taki…

I've never been so envious of happily married people in my life. Being single throughout this ordeal has broken me mentally, particularly at an age (31) where I'm staring down the last couple years of being able to meet someone my age. And the prospects coming out of it are grim. For people with a happy home life, this may have been a good time. But for the isolated, work from home, single people with no long term so…

[deleted]

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#174

Post by kickopotomus »

NationalPark wrote: post #123
ramesh31 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I know people who met and got married in their 40s... It all depends on what you're looking for I guess. Certainly you can get married in your 40s. But at that point having a single child, let alone a few, becomes a monumental task. It's not an imaginary deadline. Fertility falls off a cliff at 35 [0]. [0] https://www.kinderzeit.org/en/fertility-by-age/

> becomes a monumental task Even ignoring the fact that fertility treatments exist... 1 in 4 healthy women in their 20s and 30s will get pregnant in any single menstrual cycle. (The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, 2018) 1 in 10 healthy women in their 40s will get pregnant in any single menstrual cycle. (The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, 2018) hardly monumental

1) Fertility treatments are expensive and don't work for everyone

2) "1 in 10 healthy women in their 40s will get pregnant in any single menstrual cycle". I.e. there is a 90% chance that a woman over 40 will have at least some difficulty getting pregnant. Likely more than that if their partner is similar in age because male fertility declines with age as well.

3) Getting pregnant is only the first step. Miscarriage rates also increase with age.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#175

Post by ericbarrett »

dharmab wrote: post #146

Adobe does two of these every year, one in winter around the holidays and one in July. From my perspective as an individual contributor, there are a few advantages: - With no feature/project work that week, there is zero pressure to check email or slack. - Teams are forced to build systems that are automated, resilient and documented enough that most of the staff won't need to be contacted during the shutdown week. -…

Does it draw your vacation time? Mandatory vacations (especially around Christmas) were started in the early 2000s among Bay Area tech companies in order to reduce collective accrued PTO, reducing liability on the balance sheet—had nothing to do with worker health. Although that regime is certainly preferable to so-called "unlimited" PTO.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#176

Post by crowbahr »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #154
crowbahr wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your empathy here. This advisory wasn't even available in March or April of 2020: there was nothing. The URL has only existed since April of 2021.

It says updated Apr 2021. I certainly recall reading that COVID transmission via surfaces was minimal sometime in 2020, earlier rather than later.

During the major outbreak in NYC from March - May we were actively told to wipe down surfaces.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#177

Post by whatshisface »

afarrell wrote: post #169
theptip wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to note, you can regularly ask your employees how they feel, and with enough employees get a significant measurement. So maybe they can measure the “woolly” morale impact of this. Tools like Lattice make it easy to do a “pulse” survey for this purpose. Also the great thing about doing this twice a year is you get two experiments so you can start to be confident it’s not just “Christmas makes employees 10% happie…

That assumes that your employees: 1. Know how they feel 2. Can translate that into numbers accurately.

3. Are willing to express how they feel instead of how they think they should bubble themselves in on a web app you pointed them to.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#178

Post by claytongulick »

chrisseaton wrote: post #117
dijksterhuis wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? What? I'm about to turn 32 and I'm a bit confused about the whole "last couple of years of being able to meet someone". I know people who met and got married in their 40s... Edit: go easy on yourself pal. We've all got enough to deal with in the world without beating ourselves up over imaginary deadlines. Edit2: also, a lot of marriages are not happy. Imagine having to live in one of them during a pandemic. Usua…

I only know through friends, but dating in your 30s seems like an absolute nightmare - they all hate it and find it completely joyless and deeply cynical. Trying to fit someone new into an already fully-formed life at that point seems very hard. Also 35 is the point where medicine considers a pregnancy to be 'geriatric'. And some people are going through menopause by 40! You don't have an infinite amount of time in l…

Well, a different perspective (as someone who was unwillingly tossed back into the dating pool at age 38).

While online dating was indeed a bit of a nightmare, dating older women in general was a net positive for me.

I liked people who have lived life a bit, made mistakes, hopefully learned from them, are past the point of obsession about body type, and are more focused on character and how to treat/be treated properly.

People do learn and grow as they age, and most of us become better people.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#179

Post by Jommi »

cfcf14 wrote: post #127
dstick wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m afraid that’s quite a bit of self referential bias. So let me raise your hopes with some of mine: I met my wife when she was 30 and already had 2 kids. We’ve been together for 16 years now, got 2 daughters (so 4 children in total), and are nothing like the individuals we were 16 years ago. We’ve grown together, we’ve grown separately - we’ve changed yearly. Since you’re aware of it now: don’t become an individual…

Thanks for sharing this lovely anecdote, and for the positive sentiment. Unfortunately I do agree with the person you're replying to - these days, it is vanishingly unlikely to find a partner past your early 30s. Only a tiny proportion of the adult population in most western countries is single, and asymmetries in the dating pool induced by modern modes of meeting people (ie: apps) have radically upended traditional…

I am really really challenging your sentiment - we live in a time where more and more people than ever stay single even in their early 30s. Especially the gender balance there has changed immensly. What evidence do you have to the contrary?

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#180

Post by ryandrake »

silicon2401 wrote: post #22
asim wrote: post #2

Good. We're taking all of July off at my company. Why? Because covid was an incredibly hard period for all of us and we as humans need a break. Somehow we all just seem to expect things to keep going like nothing changed. We all just seem to be expected to gloss over the pains of isolation, potential death and stress of work and life with no separation or boundaries. We made a conscious decision at my place of work t…

This is a very subjective statement. The pandemic has been bar none the best period of my life. Increased physical and social distance from other people, no need to emote in public thanks to masks, no need to commute, greater accommodation for non-social options like self-checkouts. My physical and mental health have skyrocketed, and as a result I feel like I've been on vacation for a year and half, despite only taki…

Yea, I kind of cringe when I read the all-hands e-mails from my company that say things like "We know this has been incredibly difficult for all of you..." and "Everyone wants to get back into the office..." Wow, speak for yourself--it's been the best year of my life, and no, I'd rather just stay remote permanently, thankyouverymuch!

On the other hand, it gives me a chance to step back and develop some real empathy for everyone else. I recognize that I am blessed, and most people aren't wired like me, and the isolation has been really tough for them. When I interact with people over videoconference, I have to remind myself that this person might very well be suffering to the point of a mental breakdown from all this, and I need to communicate with care and thoughtfulness.

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