Cebu hotel offers 5-day leave for ‘lovesick’ employees

Did you just break up with your lover? You can take a leave for five days.

Oh well, this only applies to lovelorn employees of a hotel in Cebu, whose chief executive officer (CEO) had a bad experience nursing with a heartbreak while working.

Cebu Century Plaza Hotel in Cebu City said they started offering a benefit leave for their heartbroken employees only this year.

Lovelorn CEO

Ricardo Dublado, the hotel CEO, said a heartbreak leave would give employees time to grieve and soothe their brokenness, and then return to work refreshed and more productive.

He said that he also had a bad break up in 2018 that affected his work, according to his interview with GMA News. 

“Ako mismo galing po ako sa isang breakup o bad relationships, and for sure, affected ‘yung work ko,” Dublado said. 

“It comes from my personal experience po kasi ako po mismo, I’ve been through a lot of bad relationships tapos nagdu-duty po ako na medyo ngarag ako o lutang so it’s something that na-experience ko na dati,” he added. 

Dublado said that he doesn’t want his employees to feel that their are being forced to work despite not being stable emotionally. 

“I don’t want na ma-experience ng mga staff ko kasi for sure, ‘di sila productive sa mga trabaho nila so sayang din ‘yung araw,” he added.

Terms of lovesick leave

Dublado said that even workers in probationary status are also entitled to the leave benefit. 

The hotel owner said that employees are also entitled for another heartbreak leave in the same year as long as it was from a different partner. 

Employees availing the break up leaves will also have a facial beauty package which includes one facial and one body scrub with the hotel’s partner beauty clinic, Skin 911. 

Other leaves

Apart from breakup leaves, the company also offers birthday leaves with free cake and P2,00 cash. 

“I always value mental health. Pinahalagaan ko talaga ‘yung tao kasi they work for you e. ‘Yung success mo, galing din ‘yun sa tao mo,” he said.

Mental health leaves in PHL

In the Philippines, there is only one type of benefit leave which employers are mandated to provide employees with regard to mental health — the leave under the Violence Against Women Act.

The Republic Act No. 9262 stipulates that women employees who were victims of domestic violence will be entitled to 10 days of leave with full pay.

Some employers extend bereavement leave for employees whose immediate family members have died.

A bill in Congress is still pending allowing employees to take five-day mental health leaves.