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Talent Management Perspectives

Published February 2008

Is Offering Employees Heartache Leave Discriminatory?

Kellye Whitney

Valentine's Day is over, and the residuals could linger for those who were unlucky in love this year. Japanese firm Hime & Co. may believe those residuals will find their way into the workplace, which likely is one reason the organization offers employees heartache leave.

Hime & Co., which markets cosmetics and other goods targeted at women, offers staff aged 24 or younger one day off per year for heartache leave, employees 25-29 years old can take two days off and anyone older than 29 can take three days off per year.

In a January 2008 Reuter's article Hime & Co., CEO Miki Hiradate said, "Women in their 20s can find their next love quickly, but it's tougher for women in their 30s, and their breakups tend to be more serious."

Dr. Ann Clark, CEO for ACI Specialty Benefits, which offers employee assistance and work-life programs for corporations around the world, said this unusual type of benefit likely would not take off as a formal arrangement in a U.S. company.

"If it was a larger company, or a serious policy, I'm afraid it's discriminatory. Two, it's already covered by America's Family Leave Act. Under the Family Leave Act you can take leave 'for continuing treatment by a healthcare provider.' In other words, a heartache, if you will, which might be translated into depression, anxiety, loss of work or lack of productivity. Those would be treated by a health care provider, whether it be a family therapist, a psychiatrist, psychologist or whatever and would be covered under the act. Beyond that, the discriminatory aspect of it is it creates a class of individuals who would receive special treatment that others are not entitled to," Clark explained. "In other words, the non-heartbroken would not be entitled to this benefit."

Dr. Clark said what's even more interesting about this particular situation is Hime & Co. makes an assumption that older women need more time to get over breakups. In addition to being discriminatory, the policy on heartache is not well-defined.

"What's to prevent someone from getting a heartache every other week? It's a very hard to identify behavior or symptomatology. That's where the employee assistance program comes in. Health care does not cover the ordinary run of the mill, day-to-day disappointments in life like heartache, but the employee assistance program does."