Editor’s Note: ‘Happy Hour’ is an HR Dive column from Editor Ginger Christ. Follow along as she dives into some of the offbeat news in the HR space.
Valentine’s Day can sometimes be a make-or-break holiday for couples, so much so that the Tuesday before has been dubbed “Red Tuesday” — one of the most common days that couples call it quits.
As the potentially disastrous holiday nears, Zety recently released a Heartbreak Leave Report that found that 1 in 3 workers think their companies should offer formal time off to deal with a breakup.
“While the concept of ‘heartbreak leave’ — formal days off to recover from romantic loss — may sound unconventional, the data suggests employees are already taking time off after breakups, just quietly and without support,” Jasmine Escalera, a career expert, writes in the report.
A third of workers admitted that they’ve called off sick or used paid time off to recover from a broken heart, Zety found, and a quarter said a breakup affected their attendance or punctuality at work.
Of the 1,020 U.S. employees surveyed, 43% said a breakup negatively affected their productivity or their ability to focus, and 17% said it hurt their relationships with co-workers or managers.
If a company were to offer heartbreak leave, 43% of workers say they would likely use it, but 65% of employees said they would worry about judgment for doing so.
“While recovery needs vary, most employees feel a short period of time for emotional leave from work is sufficient to regain focus, indicating that modest policy changes could make a meaningful difference in retention and engagement,” Escalera writes.
In many cases, offering time off for specific reasons can be more of a branding exercise than an actual policy change, experts have previously told HR Dive.
Take, for example, when a New York City councilman proposed in October 2024 the expansion of the city’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act to allow workers to use sick time for pet-related medical care. At the time, a partner in law firm Fisher Phillips’ New York City office said employees at many companies can already likely use personal time off to care for pets, even if it’s not specifically regulated.
“It’s not like it’s creating a new bank of additional days; it just gives employees an additional reason that they can use that sick leave,” she told HR Dive.
As the founder of AbsenceSoft, a leave and accommodation management solutions provider, previously told HR Dive, “The reality is, they’re going to need to take that time anyway,” he said. “Any leave you can plan for is much better than a leave you can’t.”
In speaking about caregiving leave, he said offering flexible work arrangements, leave and other benefits can help alleviate the strain on workers, as well as lessen the impact on the business by cutting down on unexpected absences.
Forty percent of workers said they would need at least three days of PTO following a breakup to recover, Zety found. Beyond actual time off, employees also said being offered remote work days, flexible hours, fewer check-ins or meetings and adjusted deadlines or workloads would be helpful.
As Feb. 14 nears, my heart goes out to all of those workers going through it. A clinical psychologist for the Cleveland Clinic likens the grief people experience after a breakup to the grief felt after the death of a loved one. I hope that however this holiday finds you, you have support — from your community but also your workplace.