Laduma insists that employees take additional time off on Fridays to help them focus on combining work and life outside the office

An award-winning tech consultancy is placing the happiness of employees above productivity by
insisting they take time off on Fridays. Laduma, which uses cutting edge tech like VR and AR to create content for some of the world’s biggest brands, closes its offices around the world at 1230 every Friday and gives staff the last Friday of the month completely off. Executives at the company hope the new
policy will go some way to ensuring that all employees are able to find a balance between work and life. This is in addition to things like employee onboarding to reduce burnout and team-building activities to encourage productivity.

Wayne Scholes, executive chairman of Laduma, explained his thinking behind what Laduma calls Fri-Yay.

“It’s extremely important to me that the people who work for Laduma are happy and enjoy the work they do,” he said. “Our people are at the core of what we do, we want to create an environment where they feel protected from the pressures of balancing the work that they do, with their time away from work.”

The issue of work-life balance is a key topic of discussion among mental health professionals, with studies showing that work-related stress increases as people work longer hours. A recent report by You Gov indicates that one in five (21%) 25-34s in the UK feel they are failing to find that elusive work/life balance.