Wellbeing Days 3AW 693AM Radio Melbourne with Shane McInnes

By Sue Ellson

Topic: Wellbeing Days in the workplace: are they the best option?

Date: 25 November 2025

Media Outlet: 3AW 693AM Melbourne https://www.3aw.com.au

Broadcaster / Interviewer: Shane McInnes

Producer: Bianca Johnston

Time Stamp: 00:00:17 – 00:06:24

Duration Total: 00:05:25

Time of show: 12:37pm

Audio Recording:

YouTube Video:

Using AI on Resumes and Cover Letters on 3AW 693 AM Radio Melbourne with Tony Moclair and Sue Ellson

Transcript

Well-being days. We all need them from time to time, but many businesses would frown upon them. But it seems as though the Reserve Bank of Australia in its new enterprise agreement is saying, “You know what? Well-being days, they’re good for you.” Employees at the RBA will be allowed up to eight well-being days a year. It will come out of their personal leave, their sick leave, if you like. Is it a good thing? They’ll be able to take the day off. No question to ask, no medical certificate, just a day off. 13 3693. You for or against? Do you take well-being days or the occasional sicky? Sue Ellson is career expert and author. Sue, good afternoon to you. Nice to chat.

Hi Shane.

Are well-being days accepted in the modern workplace?

Well, I don’t know. It’s obviously going to depend on each employer and what they offer. But in terms of benefit to the enterprise, I would say workplace flexibility would be a much better call because obviously you don’t always need a full day, but if you can pop out and have your massage or your special treatment or something at the end of a day and have that on a more regular basis, I think that’s better than just random days off as such.

Do do you think some people who work from home would do that as it is anyway? Such that I’m working from home. You know what? I’ll I’ll start at 7:30 this morning. I’ll finish at 3:30 and then get a massage at at 4:00. That many people would already be doing that.

Well, interestingly, there’s actually been fewer absences from work if people are allowed to work from home or they’ve got that flexible workplace, you know, in process. So I guess where there’s been an increase in sick leave is since COVID, obviously more of us are feeling a little bit more socially responsible when we go to work and don’t want to go in with a cold or a flu and in infect everybody else. And what’s changed also significantly since COVID is the telehealth appointment.

So if you do feel sick, it’s much easier to get your sick certificate on a telehealth appointment and apparently younger workers are also making those calls. Uh quite often for mental health reasons and uh yeah so the sick leave actual use of it is increasing believe it or not.

There will still be a number of workplaces though where you simply cannot work from home. So that that flexible working somewhat becomes arbitrary, you have to be in the office.

Yep.

And that might therefore bring the well-being day to the for or let’s say I go away for a weekend. You know what? I’m going to take Monday off and we’ll spend an extra day down at the beach.

Mmm.

Is it a good idea to allow employees to go, you know what, I just need a day to myself, a day to relax, a day to chill. I’m entitled to eight a year. I mean, it’s it’s virtually eight extra public holidays.

Yes. Uh well, it depends on whether the employer can afford it because on the average wage, your normal 10 days of sick leave that you would normally have, um that’s worth over $4,000 when you take into the cost pay, super, workers comp, and payroll tax. So, if you think about, oh well, we’ll just have a well-being day as well, that’s a big cost to an employer. And yeah, I’d be reluctant to say that’s the best option, and and yeah you know all of us I mean casual employees they don’t get any leave whatsoever so they don’t work they don’t get paid full stop uh and obviously some employers will go down that path to avoid the cost so I guess it it depends really.

So is is that then therefore a cost-benefit analysis to go you know what that old adage of happy employees happy workplace

Mmm

If you are allowing them to have these well-being days and you can structure it such that you know what the cost isn’t too great a burden to the workplace or maybe having happy employees actually increases, you know, the the workflow that it may be worth it for some employers to consider?

Oh, absolutely. And and the interesting thing is with this Reserve Bank, um they’ve increased their workforce substantially in recent past. It’s gone up to over 2,000 employees, 15% growth, and a lot of those are in the IT area. Now we can imagine a lot of those would be mid to younger age groups and you know it could be very attractive to them and it could be the reason why they choose to work with that employer because they’ve got that extra benefit and they see that as valuable and obviously some people will say well a private enterprise can give out those free massage tickets and claim it as a tax deduction.

I don’t know whether the public uh employer can do that or not but um yeah definitely anything that overall is going to improve productivity, mental health, staff retention so long as you can measure those impacts then absolutely it could be fantastic but yeah I I just sort of I’d be a little bit reserved about automatically implementing this I guess because I I see both sides of the equation and my dad worked for 40 years for the same employer and was very proud of the fact that he had a huge accumulation of sick leave. Of course, he couldn’t get paid out with it when it, you know, the job ended, but he was very proud of the fact that he hadn’t taken sick leave. So, yeah, it’s it’s a tricky one to answer.

And I think that depends on the job as well. I mean, some in some workplaces, you will be less inclined to want to take a day away from the workplace. Sue Ellson, Career Expert and Author, appreciate your time this afternoon.

Thanks Shane.

Social Share

WELLBEING DAYS // Have you asked an employer for a ‘wellbeing’ day rather than a ‘sick leave’ day?🤔 Did it help you? 🍎Are you an employer who is considering offering this as an extra incentive to attract quality employees? I discussed this topic with Shane McInnes on 📻3AW 693AM Radio Melbourne today and we talked about:

✅ Reserve Bank of Australia new enterprise agreement that includes 8 days wellbeing leave (on top of 10 days sick leave)
✅ benefits of flexible work rather than full days off without a medical certificate
✅ increase in employees taking sick leave since COVID
✅ increase in medical certificates obtained via telehealth appointments
✅ being more strategic about your job search
✅ younger workers requesting leave for mental health purposes
✅ costs to an employer of pay, superannuation, workers compensation, and payroll tax
✅ casual employees not having any sick leave
✅ wellbeing days being attractive to future employees
✅ ensuring that employers can measure improved productivity, mental health and staff retention
✅ considering a cost-benefit analysis before implementing wellbeing days

Enjoy the show online at https://sueellson.com/blog/wellbeing-days-3aw-693am-radio-melbourne-with-shane-mcinnes

This link also includes further information you may find helpful.

Thanks to Producer Bianca Johnston for reaching out!

➡️ What are your thoughts as either an employee or an employer?

I would love to continue this discussion and hear your perspectives.

#3awmelbourne #wellbeing #wellbeingdays #shanemcinnes #sueellson