Online dating app Bumble had shuttered its offices for a week in order to combat workplace stress. Around 700 employees of Bumble worldwide have been asked to log off from work and focus on themselves instead.
Clare O'Connor, head of editorial content at Bumble, revealed on Twitter that the founder of the firm Whitney Wolfe Herd had taken the decision to give time off to all employees after have "having correctly intuited our collective burnout". "In the U.S. especially, where vacation days are notoriously scarce, it feels like a big deal," added O'Connor in her now-deleted tweet.
The past year has been busier for Bumble, the online dating app where women have to make the first move, compared to most firms as the company made its stock market debut in February and saw its users base grow rapidly during the pandemic. Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, 31, become the youngest women ever to take a company public in the United States.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused Bumble to grow in popularity as millions under quarantine turned towards the app in order to tackle the boredom caused by lockdown and other curbs.
The number of paid users across Bumble and Badoo, which is also owned by Bumble, jumped by 30% in the first three months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, according to a BBC report.
With a large percentage of population vaccinated and COVID-19 restrictions relaxed, firms in the US are now reopening offices and unveiling plans for the future of remote work. While some firms like Goldman Sachs have asked their vaccinated employees to come back to work by the fall of this year, other companies have taken a different approach.
Apple is expected to follow a hybrid work-from-home strategy while Twitter has stated that many employees can work from home indefinitely.
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