Wellness Day at Axonista
As a remote-first team, we enjoy the many benefits this kind of work environment provides. We know that it is important to maintain a healthy work-life balance while working from home. We schedule daily coffee morning chats to catch up with our colleagues and share stories, and we often participate in fun events. We have traveled together virtually to places like Buenos Aires and Venice, and attended a virtual wildlife safari in South Africa.
This year, to highlight the importance of wellness and self-care while working remotely, we introduced a month that is completely focused on wellness.
“Wellness is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Wellness itself is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life.” World Health Organisation.
Creating the space for wellness in a remote-first world
We organised our Wellness Month in February to offer Axonistas a variety of wellness activities in order to embrace wellness, and to make it even more a part of Axonista’s culture.
“Great remote companies understand how important it is to enable their staff to switch off and focus on their wellbeing. This is a brilliant initiative from Grow Remote Advisory Board member Axonista” Joanne Mangan – Employers Lead at Grow Remote.
We kicked off our Wellness Month with a company-wide day off to encourage our team to take some time to do something that makes them feel good. Everyone took the opportunity to do something, with activities ranging from diving, to pottery, to flying an airplane! It was great to see the Axonista team get up to really interesting, unique, and cool activities and gave us an extra level of appreciation for each other’s lives!
Here is what some of the Axonista team got up to on Wellness Day
Agostinho, Engineering, Funchal, Portugal
Agostinho was pleased to spend his Wellness Day 20 meters deep in the warm waters of Madeira Island!
“Spent my wellness day enjoying my favourite element, Salt Water!!! Spent it practicing one of my favourite sports, freediving, enjoying the peace of the deep warm ocean waters from my Island, Madeira Island. It was an excellent wellness day thank you so much Axonista!”
Louise, Project Management, Dublin, Ireland.
Louise spent her day at her pottery wheel, which she received as a Christmas present, and was finally able to use thanks to the company-wide day off!
“My main goal for wellness day was to have some time to myself to practice on my pottery wheel. I got it 2 months ago and wasn’t finding any time to use it. It was great to have a whole day to devote to it. It encouraged me to set aside time for it more, which has been brilliant!”
Francesco, Engineering, Barcelona, Spain.
Francesco spent his Wellness Day off with his girlfriend. They went on a morning walk around the beautiful city of Barcelona, and spent their evening with friends.
“The day started with a walk around the city with my girlfriend. We grabbed lunch at a vegan restaurant. After lunch, we used the free time to do some bureaucratic stuff we kept postponing. In the evening we met with some friends and had a nice time in some bars.”
Jenny, People Operations, Dublin, Ireland.
Jenny – who is incredibly creative – spent her day making some beautiful jewelry as she finds it good for the mind and soul.
“Wellness day was a great initiative. It meant I had a few hours to myself during the day while my son was at creche! I’ve been learning to make jewelry recently so I used the time to try some new techniques and create some small pieces. Having a physical creative outlet helps me to relax, I find it good for the mind and soul. Plus, who doesn’t get a tiny bit of joy from sparkly things?”
Sandra, Quality Assurance, Osijek, Croatia.
Sandra, who lives in Croatia, went on a morning walk with her dog, made delicious homemade burgers, and enjoyed live music in a lively bar.
“On my Wellness day, I decided to go on a morning walk with my dog to catch a glimpse of the first sunny rays near the forest. We played with random sticks she found and ran together. When we got home we made some homemade burgers. They were delicious! Later my partner and I decided to grab some coffee and take a walk near the river. We finished our day by going to a bar and enjoying some live music.”
Michaela, Operations, Dublin, Ireland.
Michaela spent her day off doing a lot of fun activities like reading, going to the gym, and watching a drag show in the famous Irish bar, The George.
“I started my Wellness Day off reading a few chapters of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I’ve been struggling with getting back into reading over the last while but finding a quality book like Gone Girl makes getting back into the swing again easy. Reading is also a lovely way to disconnect and stay away from screens. Afterwards, I headed to the gym, which I’ve only recently joined. I’ve enjoyed getting into weights and I’ll be super jacked very soon so watch this space. I had to swing by my favourite coffee shop, The Coffee Drop in Beaumont, where I spotted the sweetest and fluffiest dog and that put me in a great mood. As a remote-first team, we get to see our colleagues virtually on a daily basis but it’s really lovely to be able to meet them in person so I met up with Dami, our wonderful Marketing Executive, at Jackie’s. Nothing quite like a Solero flavoured cocktail with your work bestie! Afterwards, I went to a drag show in the George, Ireland’s seminal gay bar. All in all, a truly lovely day to engage in so many activities that make me feel good.”
Kristijan, Engineering, Virovitica, Croatia
Kristijan’s Wellness Day activities were magnificent! He spent his day out in nature, relaxed in a sauna, and finished what already sounds like the perfect day by watching the stars in the sky!
“I started off with a morning of coffee & cats, went to a fishing ground nearby for a walk and topped it off with sauna in Hungary ( I live near the border) and finished with a very starry night. I live in a small city, so light pollution is low and stars are pretty visible.”
Dami, Marketing, Dublin Ireland.
Dami started her Wellness Day off with a stroll through Dublin City Centre. She went into a few of her favourite shops and finished her day in Jackie’s drinking cocktails.
“For me, shopping has always been therapeutic! I was thrilled to spend my Wellness Day in town, checking out the latest style that Zara, Mango, and Bershka have in stock. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Wellness Day for me if I didn’t have a drink in my hand, so after wandering around town, I made my way to Jackie’s Bar. I spent some time with my colleague Michaela, drinking cocktails, bopping along to music and having a laugh. It was a great day!”
We think that other remote-first companies should consider adding a Wellness Day to their team activities as the feedback we got back from our team was overwhelmingly positive. Wellness Day will be part of our calendar from now on! The conversations it encouraged between team members served as a great way to get to know each other’s lives, and build relationships outside of our work day.
We know that having the time to do something that makes you feel good is such an important aspect of life, so it was great to see our team get up to different activities.There is no doubt that Axonistas are a bunch of creative and talented people!
We’re always on the lookout for new team members to join in our mission of building the video-first future of shopping, if this sounds like something you are interested in, please check out our careers page.
