myBurgerLab to close all stores temporarily in support of staff’s mental health
Of late, stories of Malaysians undergoing stress and depression has been a hot topic of discussion on social media. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has seen a steady rise in mental illness with more people seeking professional help to recover from depression.
Amid the ongoing crisis, myBurgerLab Malaysia has made a brave decision to close all of its outlets in support of their staff’s mental health after they’ve worked in a stressful environment for more than a year.
Raising a red flag for mental health awareness
Image credit: myBurgerLab
Yesterday, 15th July 2021, hamburger restaurant myBurgerLab updated their Facebook page saying that all their outlets will be closed temporarily from 26th July 2021 to 30th July 2021 to let their staff take a break from working in a stressful environment since the start of the pandemic.
In the long post, its co-founder Renyi said that the team has been going through a lot of challenges in 2020 and had to come up with new solutions to overcome them apart from the support they received from fellow Malaysians.
However, with daily Covid-19 cases surpassing 10,000 for three consecutive days, the management has decided to let everyone in their company take time off as they are mentally exhausted dealing with the new normal.
“For the last 483 days since MCO1.0 started, we persevered and held on, but enough is enough. In the last 5-6 weeks, we observed cracks within our organisation. Even the toughest of us find it hard to hold our heads up on the best of days,” they wrote on Facebook.
Image credit: Cai Jia
The post mentioned that for five days at the end of July, all of their teams will be on a break to recuperate from stress. Co-founder Renyi also highlighted that while it may not be a long term solution, the decision to go ahead with the closure was made considering the welfare of the staff.
Despite being able to operate during the Movement Control Order, she said that they have been losing much of their profits to delivery partners as dine-ins remain prohibited.
They clarified that their business was not built for the “lockdown” model and taking time off was necessary because they wished to retain their workers.
“It’s not that we can afford to close. It’s that we can’t afford to lose our people,” she said, adding that business will still go on as usual for the time being and those who wish to support can do so by placing their orders on their website.
Since its posting, the viral post has garnered over 1,800 reactions and more than 200 shares from Malaysians who sent encouraging words for the team.
myBurgerLab closing all stores in support of mental health awareness
Kudos to myBurgerLab for making this bold move despite the current economic situation. Mental health is vital for all of our well-being and we hope that more employers will take this matter seriously.
It is important to prioritise the mental health of workers since there’s little room for social interaction during a lockdown. Let’s keep looking out for each other.
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Cover image adapted from: myBurgerLab and @happyfood228