If you search for Yellow Day on the Internet, you will find many articles -both in English and Spanish-, that will try to explain to you what exactly that label means.
You will find that Yellow Day takes place on the 20th of June and that it’s considered to be nothing more and nothing less than “the happiest day of the year”, as opposed to Blue Monday, (the saddest day of the year).
As you can imagine, all of this makes no sense at all, and that is why we will spare you the alleged pseudoscientific arguments supporting Yellow Day. We will discuss on this occasion the factors mentioned when talking about Yellow Day that can influence increasing or improving people’s mood both inside and outside of work, even if it is not exactly on the 20th of June.
Factors relevant to Yellow Day
1. More free time
With the arrival of what is considered good weather (warmer, more light, less rain, less wind), many companies modify their schedules and establish intensive workdays. The more daring and innovative ones even propose four-day work weeks. This allows working hours to be distributed more flexibly and efficiently than during the rest of the year, positively influencing employee motivation and productivity.
2. An increase in daylight hours
Not everyone enjoys the summer months in the middle of the year in the same way. For various reasons (especially related to rising temperatures), there are those who feel better in autumn and winter. However, others bloom progressively as the year progresses and experience their most enjoyable months during summer. With the abundance of sunlight, this is the best time of the year for them: they feel more motivated, with increased vitality, they feel better physically, and this influences different aspects of their life, including their professional life.
3. Contact with nature
Nature is one of the most beneficial scenarios for physical and psychological well-being. As we have more free time and the weather is suitable for outdoor activities, our chances of being in contact with nature increase. The most fortunate have the sea, the mountains, or both nearby. But a garden, the shore of a river, or a public park, can also be good ways to experience this.
4. Time to socialize
Yellow Day has a lot to do with increasing the leeway we have in our daily lives to carry out pleasant activities shared with the people around us, including those co-workers who are part of our trusted core.
5. Summer vacations approaching
As we enter the warm and luminous months of the year, planning one of the most important leisure moments in the calendar is set in motion: summer vacations, for those who have them or who decide to take a few days off during these weeks. With this planning, the fantasy and the savoring of the activities that will be carried out and the sensations that they will give us are also activated.
6. Good memories of past summers
For some reason, there is a tendency to relate people’s childhood and adolescence with happy memories, especially during the -usually- idealized summer vacation periods. So Yellow Day is based on the assumption that past experiences of pleasant summers are reactivated on the 20th of June so that the arrival of summer weather during these weeks is associated with positive emotions and memories.
Caring for people’s emotional well-being at work
At ifeel, we do not work to boost employee happiness but to increase their psychological well-being. That is why we want to help companies in the process of building a healthy and constructive corporate culture for all its members. With that goal in mind, our team of psychologists specializing in well-being at work has created an emotional well-being program for companies.
Through this collaboration, your company’s HR managers will be able to receive personalized, data-driven advice on how to improve their teams’ psychological well-being. In addition, this program provides employees with a complete mental health care service structured at different levels according to their needs. Try our program now to see how it can help you.
Visit our Resources section, where you will find podcasts, guides for Human Resources, or interviews with leading HR professionals. In addition, you will have access to a Psychosocial Risk Factors Template, which will help you comply with the Labor Inspection requirements.
We hope this post about Yellow Day was interesting and helpful. Would you like to know more about our mental well-being program for companies? Simply get in touch, and we will contact your team as soon as possible.
