From February 19th to February 23rd, GreenSpark Solar is closing operations to take an organization-wide break to celebrate its 2nd annual Wellness Week. Wellness Week aims to combat burnout and promote mental wellness by enacting a collective company leave. Our Executive Director of Communications, Meaghann Schulte, spoke at a DisruptHR conference in May about the why behind leadership’s intentional decision to shut down for one week in February 2023 and why we’ll do it again this year, from February 19th through February 23rd, 2024.  

According to the American Psychological Association, “Taking time off helps the majority of US workers recover from stress and experience positive effects that improve their well-being and job performance.”

Hear what our Leadership Team has to say about Wellness Week:

“The leadership team applauds all of GreenSpark for the countless hours of dedication and hard work consistently produced by all of our people. However, hard work without rest is not sustainable. We are committed to creating a culture that thrives due to enabling our employees to have a healthy work-life rhythm. It’s time to put actions behind our words. Wellness Week is our way of saying we see you, we thank you, and we promise to always find new ways to do better by you. I truly hope you enjoy your week off.” – Ciera Caldwell, People Department Director

“By closing the office for the week, we are communicating key company priorities – that taking real time off to focus on personal and family life is important.  Call it work-life rhythm or prioritization. 

We’ve had a flexible PTO policy, but we’re taking that a step further to say there’s a minimum of one week of vacation that every employee at GreenSpark has to take.  

The winter is hard in Western NY, and the temptation to just put your head down and work through it is real.  Closing the company for a week is a chance for a refresh, an opportunity for all of us to make space for our individual and family well-being.” – George McConochie, Founder/COO

“Wellness Week reflects GreenSpark’s dedication to our People’s health. It is GreenSpark’s intention to care for our employees’ financial, physical, mental, and spiritual health. Happy, rested employees perform better while on the job.

It is an opportune time from a business perspective.  We are a construction business in Western NY, and while no less busy, we are less productive due to the outside conditions.  Offering this time now is a good business decision to bring our people back healthy and rested to complete the winter grind and be energized heading into spring.” – Kevin Schulte, Founder/CEO

Here is what some of our GreenSpark team members did during last year’s Wellness Week!