PETALING JAYA, July 16 — Local brand myBurgerLab Malaysia will be disregarding profitability and the hustle culture for five days this month to take care of its employees well-being.
All stores nationwide will be closed from July 26 till July 30.
Its co-founder Renyi wrote on Facebook that while the brand was lucky enough to stay open, the Covid-19 pandemic had taken a huge toll on the team’s mental health.
“This month, we would like to raise a Mental Health Awareness Red Flag. We were all thrown into a pressure cooker with no release valve.
“From a business perspective, without dine-in as an option, all sales through our delivery partners means that we are channelling all profits to them due to the commission structure.”
The post documented that while the team was ready to enter the year filled with hope and renewed vigour, the team was mentally defeated after Covid-cases soared to 11,000.
With dine-in will only be allowed in Phase Three, the team does not know when that will take place.
“Honestly, we are mentally defeated.
“For the last 483 days since the first lockdown, we persevered and held on, but enough is enough.
“In the last five to six weeks, we observed cracks within our organization and even the toughest of us find it hard to hold our heads up on the best of days.”
The post said that while the team of “fighters” hunkered down and came up with solutions during the first lockdown, the brand managed to scrape through last year thanks to the tremendous support of friends and family.
However, since the first lockdown, its team such as the store operations had to change protocols, and even manage expectations of impatient riders and customers.
“For 483 days, the Marketing and PR team worked tirelessly to attend to all social media interactions, create fun and relevant content, address PR disasters, and are constantly on the phone fielding queries everyday-day-and-night.
“For 483 days, the central kitchen worked everyday to ensure the stores had a constant supply of high quality ingredients to meet with the sales demand.
“For 483 days, the human resource team had to address staff shortage issues, Covid close-contact tracing and quarantine, mental health issues among some employees while dealing with roadblocks.”
While some might comment that the restaurant can afford it while others wanted it to remain open for business, its employees were important at this point of time.
“It’s not that we can afford to close. It’s that we can’t afford to lose our people,” the statement read.
Comforting words kept pouring in by social media fans and followers saying that it was a good move on the company to take care of its employees mental health.
