Imagine walking into your boss’s office in the U.S. and announcing: “Yeah, I’m just not feeling it this week. I’ll see you in ten business days.” In most workplaces, HR would descend like a pack of caffeinated hawks, fluttering policies, paperwork, and possibly pink slips in your direction.

But over in China, a supermarket chain called Pang Dong Lai is pioneering something that sounds both radical and refreshingly humane: “unhappy leave.” Yes, that’s right. Employees can take up to ten extra days off a year simply because they feel down. No doctor’s note. No “family emergency” cover story. No pretending your dog ate your motivation. Just unhappiness, plain and simple.

Let that sink in.

Here in the U.S., we’ve normalized pushing through misery. Workplaces hand out pizza parties instead of livable wages and “Wellness Wednesdays” instead of actual rest. And heaven forbid you ever admit that you’re unhappy fir that would be career kryptonite. Smile! Be a team player! Put your emotional turmoil in a cute little box and bring donuts to the staff meeting.

But what if unhappiness were treated the same way as the flu? Something contagious, something that needs time to heal, something that, if left unchecked, could spread toxicity across the cubicles? Imagine a world where employees had permission to actually pause when their mental state screamed “not today.”

The potential impact is huge. Productivity might dip in the short term, but in the long run? Less burnout, lower turnover, fewer meltdowns in the breakroom over missing staplers. Maybe even better marriages because people aren’t coming home wrung out and resentful. Happiness could become normalized.

Of course, in the U.S., I can already hear the critics: “What if people abuse it?” As if workers here haven’t already been quietly crying in bathroom stalls just to get through the day. Maybe we should stop worrying about hypothetical abuses and start worrying about the very real, very expensive epidemic of burnout.

Personally, I think “unhappy leave” would be revolutionary. It acknowledges what so many of us try to hide: that we’re human. That sometimes, the best thing you can do for your work, your colleagues, and your company is to stay home, pull up the covers, and reset.

So yes, let’s clap our hands to this idea. Not in a saccharine “Kumbaya” way, but in a “finally-someone-gets-it” way. If you’re unhappy, clap your hands and for the love of all that is holy, don’t drag yourself into the office.

Because the truth is, unhappy workers don’t just stay unhappy,  they spread it like glitter. And glitter, as we all know, is impossible to clean up.