When Christina Le posted typically on LinkedIn about psychological well being, burnout, and work-life stability, she didn’t count on her firm to reply. Le, the pinnacle of promoting at social media content material creation platform Slate, had supplied one small suggestion for executives: “If companies are refreshing benefits this year, here’s a free idea: Add a cleaning service stipend.”
Whereas wellness stipends and health club perks “are fine,” she wrote, “not everyone wants to spend their limited free time on a treadmill. For a lot of us, a clean home does more for our well-being than another obligation.” Le argued a home-cleaning perk may very well be extra “practical. It’s human. It takes one thing off the list.”
And far to her shock, her firm not solely responded, however shortly acted so as to add cleansing providers as a profit for workers.
Le advised Fortune she ”genuinely didn’t” count on the corporate to reply that approach, particularly since she had simply began on the firm just a few weeks in the past.
“You hear a lot of organizations talk about valuing their people and prioritizing culture, but Slate actually demonstrated it in a very real, very immediate way,” Le stated. It wasn’t performative. They didn’t overthink it. They only listened and acted, which says so much about how severely they take their staff.
Actually, it solely took the human assets staff at her firm in the future to message Le to to let her know that they had seen her suggestion and “we loved it,” and the management staff agreed so as to add it as a profit.
“It sparked a really good internal discussion, and the leadership team agreed it makes total sense for Slate, especially since we’re a fully remote team,” Pamela Lopez, a human assets specialist with Slate, wrote in an inner message to Le. Workers obtain this $200 profit as soon as monthly, and the funds are added to a Ramp card for them to make use of. Alternatively, workers can request reimbursement for the expense.
Eric Stark, cofounder and president at Slate, advised Fortune that whereas residence cleansing providers weren’t one thing the management staff had particularly mentioned as a profit prior to now for his 40-person firm, the concept stood out due to “how practical and human the suggestion was.”
“The takeaway is that you don’t need grand, expensive programs to make a real difference,” Stark added. “Sometimes the most impactful benefits come from listening closely to employees and removing friction from their lives.”
Apart from conventional well being care and retirement advantages, Slate additionally provides workers $100 stipends that may go towards a house workplace or month-to-month co-working house, skilled improvement and a $200 month-to-month well being and wellness stipend workers can use “that genuinely improve their day-to-day well-being,” Stark stated. They’ve additionally added an “AI enablement” stipend workers can use to discover and experiment with new AI instruments.
“Rather than centralizing experimentation or prescribing a single stack, we encourage employees to try emerging tools, learn what actually works in their role, and share those insights back with the team,” Stark stated. “It’s been a practical way to build AI literacy across the company without forcing adoption from the top down.”
Le’s put up sparks on-line dialogue about worker advantages
Le’s put up on LinkedIn obtained 1000’s of likes and lots of of feedback—and she or he additionally shared her story on TikTok. There it bought almost 60,000 likes and sparked discussions about how firms ought to strategy worker advantages in a contemporary office.
@bbschnook The primary time posting on LinkedIn paid off #corporatelife #corporatemillennial #workingmom ♬ authentic sound – bbschnook
Some individuals who recognized themselves as HR professionals commented they need to recommend cleansing providers as a profit at their very own firms, and others shared how their very own firms enable them to make use of their well being and wellness advantages for issues just like the health club, cleansing, tutoring, property planning, residence exercise gear, and meals supply providers.
Le stated the response she’s gotten each from her firm and followers has been “incredibly affirming.”
“Work is hard,” she advised Fortune. “We spend an infinite quantity of our lives doing it, and it’s troublesome to remain motivated when your relationship along with your job feels purely transactional.
Particularly working in tech, she added, her firm is in a “privileged position to rethink what meaningful benefits actually look like—and to keep evolving them as people’s lives and needs change.”
Rethinking well being and wellness advantages
Up to now few years, many firms have tried including well being and wellness advantages to enchantment to workers to maintain them joyful. Whereas that works for some folks, not everybody desires to spend their free time at a health club, and produce other issues in thoughts for what would actually assist their well being and wellbeing. Actually, a 2025 worker advantages developments report from ADP reveals folks favor customizable advantages over generic plans that don’t want particular wants, and the human capital administration firm recommends commonly asking for worker suggestions on the advantages they want and need.
“Many wellness benefits are framed as adding more to your schedule—go to the gym, book a class, make time for therapy,” Le stated. “Those things matter, but they don’t remove the everyday mental load people are carrying. Your house is still messy. Dinner still needs to happen. Childcare logistics don’t disappear.”
As a substitute, providing advantages like cleansing providers helps scale back the issues folks should do throughout their 5-9, relatively than piling extra on. There’s a wealth of neuroscience and psychology analysis displaying a clear residence will help scale back stress.
“When you take something off people’s plates, you give them real breathing room,” Le stated.
