Swedish company paying staff to form social bonds

BUSINESS/LIFESTYLE

A pharmacy chain in Sweden has begun a trial across its 400 stores with a simple aim: can a few minutes a day of free time help reduce loneliness?

A large social study on loneliness commissioned by the Swedish government recently found 8% of adults don’t have a single close friend.

The pharmacy chain Apotek Hjärtat is allowing its 4,000 workers 15 minutes a week or an hour per month, to walk away from the register, the counter, or the shelves, and make a phone call, plan an event, step out to meet someone in person, or just have a chat with co-workers.

Any activity that promotes friendship and friend-making is permitted under the “Friend Care” policy; the company even gives staff US$100 a year for the purpose.

Monica Magnusson, Apotek Hjärtat’s CEO, told the BBC the idea for the Friend Care trial follows another initiative that trained pharmacists to recognise loneliness among its clientele.

It invited staff to ask something out of a series of questions designed to help people, particularly seniors and others who might suffer from social isolation, to come out of their shell.

The idea got Magnusson thinking about whether the company was doing enough along the same lines for its own people.

Yasmine Lindberg, one of Apotek Hjärtat’s employees, says she often feels lonely since separating from her partner four years ago. Though her teenage children live with her every other week, she often arrives home from work too tired to go out or make plans with friends. She says the 15 minutes have made a big difference to her, as they’ve proved the ‘kick up the backside’ she needed to make plans and put herself out there more often, something Swedish psychologist, Daniel Ek, says the country struggles with.

“The Swedish mentality is like, you shouldn’t disturb others. We value personal space a lot, and we have a hard time breaking the ice,” Ek notes.

Many Swedish businesses give their staff something called a ‘friskvård’ (trans. wellness), a benefit designed to boost wellness through activities such as fitness courses or massages. Apotek Hjärtat calls their Friend Care benefit a ‘vänvård’ (trans. friendship) in a play-on-words. Magnusson likens the “friendship hour” as “a reflection on [friskvård], but targeting loneliness and relationships instead”.

But even Apotek Hjärtat employees not participating in the pilot can still benefit emotionally from another initiative; the company provides online training for all its staff on how to recognise and handle loneliness. 

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