As part of its 2019 mandate that employees achieve a healthy work-life balance or face disciplinary action up to and including dismissal, management at Newark’s Rembison Group begin requiring employees to “Stop and smell the roses” at least once a week.
The initiative exceeded expectations – with over three quarters of the company’s 273 staffers stopping to smell the roses an average of 84.2 times each during the year. Since there were no roses available to smell on company property, however, many employees were leaving an hour early, or coming in late, in order fulfill their responsibility
This resulted in a loss of 22,986 hours of productivity that cost the company nearly $350,000.
Thus, Rembison announced this week that it is planting roses in the company’s main lobby as of January 1. Employees will still be required to stop and smell them, but only on the way in and out of work or when going to and from meetings. Further, they may not smell them for more than 25 seconds at a time.
“While we continue to require the taking of time to smell the roses, we should have established guidelines from the start,” says Human Resources VP Natalie Wixson, “Like any workplace initiative, the smelling of roses must be undertaken responsibly.”
