Maddy SavageBusiness reporter, Kalmar, Sweden
BBC
Pharmacy worker Yasmine Lindberg admits that she had been struggling with loneliness
Staff at a major Swedish pharmacy chain are being given paid time off to spend with friends, as Sweden’s government calls on businesses to help play a role in tackling loneliness.
Yasmine Lindberg, 45, is one of 11 participants taking part in the pilot “friendcare” scheme for the pharmacy group Apotek Hjärtat.
She works shifts at the company’s outlet at a retail park in Kalmar, a small seaside city in southern Sweden.
“I’m really tired when I go home. I don’t have time or energy to meet my friends,” she explains, before restocking a shelf of paracetamol.
Yasmine spends a lot of her free time with her teenage children who live with her every other week. But she admits feeling “quite lonely” since separating from her partner four years ago, which led to fewer social invitations with couples in their network.
Now, thanks to the Apotek Hjärtat pilot scheme, which started in April, she’s granted 15 minutes a week, or an hour a month during working hours to focus on strengthening her friendships or making new connections.
She can use this allotted friendcare time to chat on the phone, make plans over text, or meet up with someone in person.
“I wanted to make it better for myself… like, kick myself in the back to do stuff,” says Yasmine.
“I feel happier. You can’t live through the internet like most people do these days.”
Like all participants in the pilot project, she has been given 1,000 kronor ($100; £80) by Apotek Hjärtat to help pay for friendship-based activities during the year-long trial.
The volunteers have also received online training in how to recognise and tackle loneliness, which the pharmacy chain has made available for all its 4,000 employees across Sweden.
Monica Magnusson, Apotek Hjärtat’s CEO, says the inspiration for the company’s friendcare project comes partly from a previous collaboration with the mental health charity Mind. She says that helped demonstrate how short meaningful conversations between pharmacists and customers could help the latter group feel less isolated.
The company wanted to test if providing a short amount of ring-fenced friendship time for its employees could also impact their wellbeing.
Volunteers could also sign up if they weren’t lonely, but wanted to spend more time with isolated people in their network.
“We try and see what the effects are from having the opportunity to spend a bit of time every week on safeguarding your relationships,” explains Ms Magnusson.
The project’s title, friendcare or “vänvård” in Swedish is also a wordplay on “friskvård”, a benefit already offered by many Swedish businesses, who give employees a tax-free annual wellness allowan
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