“You Need to Rest,” The Martin Agency Tells Employees
The Martin Agency, based in Richmond, enacted more company-wide vacations — adding up to four extra weeks since March 2020 and a four-day weekend this year — after finding employees were not taking enough PTO during the pandemic, reports Insider.
Insider adds that The Martin Agency’s Chief Culture Officer, Carmina Ortiz Drummond, said the agency introduced programs to help people with stress, like a company-wide vacation called “Martin Days” and “Moments at Martin” to help people manage workloads. Drummond said The Martin Agency also did some reorganizing internally to help manage and lighten people’s workloads.
“We’re listening,” Drummond said. “We have ‘Moments at Martin’ where people can send a note to my team about what it is they’re struggling with and we can get them help, figure out what it is they need. Sometimes it’s a 48-hour reprieve. We tell them, ‘You need to rest.'”
Insider reports it spoke employees at a number of agencies who described working long hours “as clients demand faster response times and shorter deadlines since the pandemic started. Adding to the workload, some are now seeing an influx of new business pitches from marketers who put off agency searches during the height of the pandemic.
“The rising demands are deterring some agency employees from taking time off, leading to further exhaustion and burnout.”
More here.
