Ep. 54: Mental Health for Workaholics with Nabeela Ixtabalan
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Nabeela Ixtabalan is Walmart Canada’s new executive vice president of people and corporate affairs—and when she introduced herself to the company’s 90,000 associates she identified as a “recovering workaholic.” That’s an apt label for someone who was running a multi-million dollar business in her 20s (then as an executive at Starbuck’s) while at the same time parenting her first child and putting herself through grad school. But the pressure she put on herself provoked debilitating panic attacks. In this episode, she speaks with host Shaun Francis, CEO of Medcan, about her “baseline”—the set of self-care strategies she now uses to maintain her own mental wellness. She also talks about the way Walmart Canada is leading a national movement to more thoughtfully manage employee wellness. It’s a fascinating episode sure to appeal to anyone seeking pointers on how to manage the demands of work, home and self-care.
Nabeela Ixtabalan’s Baseline
A list of things Ixtabalan must protect to secure her personal wellbeing and mental health. At the end of each week, she looks back to make sure she has accomplished each part of her baseline. Not meeting her baseline is a sign she is out of balance and offers her an opportunity to reset and ask “what do I need to change?”
Protecting time for spiritual health: meditating once a week and praying daily
Eating all my meals and not skipping them to work or catch up with chores
Maintaining my sleep schedule and having restful, uninterrupted sleep (7 hours to function at peak)
Having breakfast and dinner with my kids
Working out three times a week
Getting outside to enjoy nature at least once a week
Making time for things unrelated to work: writing, reading, spending time with family or friends
Paying attention to what I pay attention to: Being selective with what I consume in media and who are in my social media circle; limiting my time to negative news and social media
Some recent blog posts by Ixtabalan:
“Know Your Baseline” — a more fulsome description of her baseline and the concept in practice.
Ixtabalan’s LinkedIn profile.
Guest Bio
Nabeela Ixtabalan is EVP, Chief People and Corporate Affairs Officer of Walmart Canada. She leads human resources and corporate affairs for 90,000 associates and over 400 stores across the country. She holds almost 20 years of leadership and business development experience with top recognized brands including Walmart, IKEA, and Starbucks Coffee in the US, Canada and Europe. Nabeela previously held the position as Head of Digital Transformation for Ingka, leading IKEA’s digital and retail transformation globally. She is Board Director of the Future Skills Centre and Miracle Foundation.
Nabeela Ixtabalan grew up in Houston Texas, as a first generation American to immigrant parents from Lebanon. In high school she began working as a barista at Starbuck’s and was promoted there from store manager to district manager to talent acquisition manager—while at the same time earning her bachelor of science degree in supply chain management and marketing from Indiana University. She also has a Master’s of Science in organizational behaviour, design and management from the University of Texas at Dallas.. She is a certified life coach and six-sigma green belt.
Episode 54 Nabeela Ixtabalan // My Baseline final web transcript
Christopher Shulgan: Welcome to episode 54 of Eat Move Think. I'm producer Christopher Shulgan, and today we're exploring the relationship between work and mental wellness by featuring Nabeela Ixtabalan, Walmart Canada's Chief People and Corporate Affairs Officer, in conversation with our host Shaun Francis.
Christopher Shulgan: How corporations care for their employees has changed. The infectious nature of the pandemic, the stress that pervades the workforce, more than ever before, the corporation is shouldering the burden of its employee health and wellness.
Christopher Shulgan: Medcan is at the forefront of this transition because our Medical Advisory Services Team provides guidance to some of Canada's largest companies.
Christopher Shulgan: Another leading the way is Walmart Canada which, with 90,000 associates, is one of the country's largest employers. Since summer 2020, it's been Nabeela Ixtabalan's responsibility to care for those human resources, and in this episode she'll talk about the innovative ways she's devised to fulfill her duties—including a partnership with Arianna Huffington's Thrive Global. She also identifies as a recovering workaholic, and uses some creative techniques to care for her own mental well-being—including a self-care tool that she calls her baseline.
Christopher Shulgan: Nabeela Ixtabalan grew up in Houston Texas, as a first-generation American to immigrant parents from Lebanon. In high school, she began working as a barista at Starbucks, and was promoted there from store manager to district manager to talent acquisition manager—while at the same time, earning her bachelor of science degree in supply chain management and marketing from Indiana University. She also has a Master's of Science in organizational behaviour. Before she joined Walmart Canada, she led IKEA's digital and retail transformation.
Christopher Shulgan: Here's Shaun's conversation with Nabeela Ixtabalan.
Shaun Francis: Thanks for joining us on the Eat Move Think podcast. I've been a big fan of everything Walmart's done for their employees, and a big fan of some of the work you're doing in wellness and your connection with Arianna Huffington and the Thrive Global Initiative. So I'm curious, and I'm sure our listeners will be curious, you know, if you could just go back in time and relay some of your history. You know, you were a workaholic in high school and university, and that really transcended through to your career. But maybe if you could give us some of that history, that would be terrific.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah. I mean, I learned at a very young age that you could achieve a lot through hard work. So when I found out, for example, I could finish high school, inside of three years instead of four, I jumped at the opportunity. And so in my junior year of high school, I was going to regular high school during the day and taking my senior year at night. Then I started working quickly after that, and at a very young age, worked full time and went to school at night. And I just got into this habit of trying to take on as much as I possibly could. And it was working for me. I was accomplishing a lot. And at a very young age, I started running multi-million dollar companies for large retailers.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: I was running a million dollar business when I was in my early 20s, I was running a $130-million business when I was, you know, 25, 26, responsible for a lot of people. And I started to kind of build this habit of just filling my plate as much as I possibly could, so to speak, until eventually it caught up with me. What I was doing is basically training my body to tolerate as much work as I possibly could, without really recognizing the long-term effects it was having on me personally. I was learning bad behaviours around just this idea of hustling all the time and working all the time, and thinking that that was the journey to success, that that was the key to success.
Shaun Francis: So when did you make that transition from education into running that small business, and the larger businesses. That would, I'm sure, be of interest to our listeners.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: I never did one or the other, I always did both. So I came from a family where I had to pay my way through college, and went to the university in the States, which is very expensive. So I worked full time, running multiple Starbucks coffees at the time in the Midwest, and I went to school at night, and it took me six years to graduate. And then when I graduated, I was seven months pregnant with my first child. So I went straight from full-time work and school to full-time work and being a new mom. Then after that, after my son was five, I decided to go back to school and get my Master's. So full-time mom, five year old and a Master's. And after I finished my Master's, I had my daughter. So it was basically like a continuous build of, yeah, I think just trying to achieve as much as I could in a short amount of time. And that's the workaholism. Like, that's what I was establishing. I was just kind of addicted to work, and keeping my plate as full as I possibly could.
Shaun Francis: And when did you have that "A-ha" moment, where you realized that maybe that work was transcending your life?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah, the first time I realized that I wasn't able to successfully cope with everything I had added to my life was after my daughter was born, and I struggled with postpartum depression. And I think the challenging thing about my experience is that I was okay at work, so I could go to work and function successfully, and no one would know the wiser. But at home, I was struggling significantly. And I think, again, the challenge in my case is that I didn't tell anybody. I was afraid of affirming a stereotype that I couldn't handle being a mom and doing a high-demanding job. And I was afraid that if I shared my struggles with postpartum depression, that, you know, it would somehow inhibit me or make it feel like I was failing. So I struggled in silence.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: And then ultimately, while I was struggling with postpartum, I started getting anxiety attacks. And I had my first anxiety attack, you know, on the side of the Houston highway, when I was on my way home from a really difficult day. I thought I was having a heart attack. Like, I was having shortness of breath. I was dizzy. You know, I had a hard time just kind of even processing where I was or what was happening. Thankful enough, I was able to pull over and regained some composure, and then make my way to urgent care where I sought medical assistance and realized I was having an anxiety attack. And then after that, really started on a long-term journey to rebalance my life and get the coping mechanisms I needed to succeed.
Shaun Francis: So talk to us about that. I mean, you go from the anxiety attack, not probably knowing it's an anxiety attack.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah. I thought I was having a heart attack.
Shaun Francis: Yeah. And how did they diagnose that it was anxiety? I guess they ruled out you were having a heart attack?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: So I was in urgent care. And, yeah, I mean, it was all the symptoms of an anxiety attack. I think they very quickly saw that it was an anxiety attack. I also got at the time then, I think diagnosed with postpartum depression, which I hadn't actually sought the right treatment or diagnosis either. So I went on a journey of healing for both postpartum depression and the anxiety itself. But ultimately, no matter what kind of medical support you're going to get, these things require life changes, right? So I had to unlearn behaviours of, you know, overworking myself, I had to get better sleep, I had to make sure I was taking better care of my health physically, in terms of how I was eating and exercising. And I had to focus on my spiritual well being, which was a big part of my journey as well. So to just reset my entire life. And it's taken many years. And through that journey, I built something I call my baseline, which is a set of binary things that I must maintain in order to take care of myself. And if I don't do those things over a period of time, I know that I might slip into difficulties. So it's something I take very seriously.
Shaun Francis: So I want to get into that in a moment. But walking back, so you get the diagnosis, I guess, which is the first step, really, of what's going on.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yep.
Shaun Francis: And then from there to action. How did you make that leap?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: I had a hard time holding my daughter. I had a hard time, like, being a mom, I had a hard time getting through, like, the normal things that you do as a mom with a young baby. I was struggling with some of the basic functions of just caring for her. And of course, there's a lot of guilt that comes along with that, because—and it was a very odd experience for me, because I didn't have that experience with my son, my firstborn. So I was really committed to just getting better, so I could be there for her and also stop having the experiences I was experiencing myself. So I actually created a one-year plan with my therapist, and it involved medication, it involved, you know, spiritual meditation or wellness, it involved reducing my workload and reconfiguring the things I was doing in my life. It involved getting a support system in place. So it was a year-long journey to get better.
Shaun Francis: We touched on this a few minutes ago, but you started to develop, was it over that period of time, this baseline?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: So the baseline didn't really come up until several years later. I mean, the first year was really a lot of concentrated support from medical providers and experts. So I mean, I don't want to minimize postpartum depression or anxiety. If you're facing those things, you need the right expertise, the right network of therapists, psychologists, your primary care physician, that needs to be treated by medical professionals, I don't think the baseline is going to do the right work. But after I got through, I think, recovering from postpartum depression, some of my anxiety continued. I still had anxiety at varying degrees, crying spells, things of that nature, where I wasn't really coping with the stress of my life in a healthy way. So I continued with therapy, and through therapy, built this baseline and started to be able to recognize the signs in myself when I knew I needed to step back and reevaluate either my personal life or my professional life, or my physical health or my mental health. So the baseline really developed over many years. And now it's written down on a piece of paper. It's in my—like, in multiple places, and I literally on a weekly basis, I check in and say, you know, have I met these requirements? And if not, I reset.
Shaun Francis: Was the therapy CBT based?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: It was. And I've had multiple therapists over the last 10 years, but I now see therapy as, like, regular maintenance. And I'm quite open that, you know, I see a therapist, and I encourage others to do the same, I think, especially for everybody, to be honest. In today's day and age, we all need to be seeing a therapist.
Shaun Francis: I totally agree. Especially during COVID.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yes.
Shaun Francis: So how long have you been with Walmart now?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: So I joined Walmart in August. I actually relocated internationally from Sweden to Toronto. And so I tell people, so I went through international relocation, I started a new job in the middle of a pandemic, and had I not had these mechanisms to protect my mental, emotional, spiritual health, I would be at this point, I think, a babbling idiot. So the fact that I think, you know, I've been able to successfully make this transition, in my mind, a proof of the power of these types of behaviours and practices that you can build into your life.
Shaun Francis: I mean, I know at Medcan, we onboarded a few new executives during the pandemic. And, of course, they couldn't meet anyone physically, which is the most unique and weirdest onboarding anyone's going to have. Or at least, you know, pre-COVID. So I bet you that was pretty unusual to relocate to a new country in a lockdown, not meeting anyone.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: I was able to meet a few members of my team before we went into the "No more than 10 people inside" regulation. But, you know, you find ways to connect with people, and I think just trying to share my story and being authentic, you start to build relationships in new ways. So trying to do that.
Shaun Francis: Maybe you can walk us through, if you have it, your baseline, because I know it would be super interesting for folks to know what it is.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah, absolutely. So the first part of my baseline is actually protecting time for spiritual health. And you can consider this in any variation. So whether it's religiously oriented or not, for me, my faith is a big part of who I am, and it gives me a lot of peace and tranquility. So I do protect, like, a weekly meditation circle. Now it's being done virtually, where I meditate in congregation with other people. And also daily prayer. So that's a really important part of my baseline. And then eating all my meals. As simple as it is, I think, you know, again, when you get busy and your plate is really full, you tend to skip breakfast, you skip lunch, you don't eat all your meals. And I think skipping my meals is a sign that I'm out of balance.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: So that's one of my baselines: number two, eat all my meals, and not skip them to just do chores or work. And then the other one is maintaining my sleep. I need seven hours to function at my peak, and anything less than that consistently is just a detriment to myself. So really being rigid about maintaining my sleep and having consistent, uninterrupted sleep. The other one is having dinner with my kids. Again, this isn't something I was able to do previously. I think when we're all travelling a lot, skipping a lot of time with my kids, but having breakfast and dinner with my kids.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: And then working out three times a week. I'm now at a place where I work out every day but, you know, when I built my baseline, just being able to commit to three times a week was really important. Getting outside once a week. And again, I have these binary measurements. So three times a week exercise, getting outside once a week and just experiencing nature. And then the other one is making time for things I enjoy. I started writing as also a healing practice. And now I write, like, even if it's a few lines every morning or before bed, and just kind of get my thoughts on paper.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: And then the last one is—and this was really affecting me as well—is paying attention to what I pay attention to. So I've actually turned off all of my news notifications. I don't get any notifications for news. I'm very selective about, you know, what I consume in terms of news or media, and who are in my circle in terms of social media and how I curate content, so that I'm not consistently exposing myself to negativity, because it does affect me personally. So I've deleted a lot of apps, I've changed a lot of my feed to make sure it's as positive as possible. And then, of course, as an executive in an important role, I still have to pay attention to the right things so I can do my job successfully, but I don't unnecessarily consume negative news.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: And so those are the things that are my baseline. And the way that I use it is at the end of every week, I check against those things. And if I can't say yes to that list of things, that I've been able to meet it for a period of time, then I will literally sit down and say, "Okay, what do I need to change?" So I either need to talk to my boss, because something is out of whack at work, or I need to rethink things at home. You know, what do I need to change to maintain my baseline? Because these are the things I need to keep in place in order to maintain my mental, emotional, spiritual, physical health and well being?
Shaun Francis: Is your way of tracking it simply did I meet the baseline this week? Or do you quantify it?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah, if I miss more than three things for a period of time, then I reset. So I've set like a—you know, things are gonna happen, right? It might go a week or two where I'm not going to be able to consistently do all the things on my list, but if by week three, I've missed three or more things by week three, then I reset.
Shaun Francis: When you joined Walmart, I read that you were quite intentional about the way you introduced yourself to the organization. Can you talk about that?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah, absolutely. So this is also something else that I've grown into, is just my confidence to talk about this. And in my previous employer, I was not as open and vocal about these things. And I'm just done pretending that mental health and mental well being is something that you should be ashamed of, or something that, you know, I think senior leaders don't struggle with. So I'm done pretending. And so I introduced myself to 100,000 associates as a recovering workaholic. And I introduced myself with what I call a wall of failure. And instead of thinking about failure as a wall of shame, it's my failure wall of fame. And I talked about the three things that I'm really not good at, or I'm trying to learn. And one of those things was recovering from workaholism, and trying to really emulate a different definition of success that doesn't include, you know, martyring yourself for your job. And so there's been an overwhelming response, and by being open and transparent, you know, it gives cultural permission for others to do the same.
Shaun Francis: I mean, you had the permission to do so at Walmart. And did that differ from other employers?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: I didn't ask for permission, I just started. And I knew—I just had this sense of confidence that it would be okay. And honestly, I know in my previous employer, it would have been okay as well, I just wasn't there personally to share it so openly. I felt like new to a company, I had a chance to present myself in my truest form, and with the most authenticity possible, instead of trying to live up to a brand that I had established previously. So it just felt like the right opportunity and the right time for me to be as authentic and open and honest as I possibly could. So that's what I did.
Shaun Francis: And you know, Walmart is one of the largest employers in Canada. 90,000 associates. How do you perceive the responsibility of the employer to its associates, in particular with respect to wellness?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: I think employers have an immense responsibility when it comes to wellness and well being. So, you know, Shaun, wellness and well being used to be this thing that, you know, companies would go after to help reduce their healthcare costs, right? It was like, that was really all it was. But, you know, if anything, if there's a silver lining to this pandemic in any way, you know, one of the things that it's done is shone a light and a magnifying glass on the mental health and mental well-being crisis. And mental health and mental well being was here long before COVID, and it will be here long after. There's a mental health crisis that's happening in the world, and any employer that doesn't take acknowledgement of that, and start to act much more aggressively around mental health and mental well being, I think will be at a disadvantage for the future.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Additionally, I believe that employees expect their employer to take an active role in their mental health and mental well being by a) providing the right benefits and services; b) providing the right education and tools, and three, by creating the culture and the permission to normalize the conversation. And that's exactly what we're trying to do at Walmart Canada. We've made well being a strategic pillar of our strategy. And we see well being as a catalyst for growth. And we don't believe that there's a trade off between well being and performance. We actually believe that well being will, you know, accelerate performance for the future.
Shaun Francis: So let's talk about that from an employer perspective. I mean, traditionally, from my perspective, employers have an EAP provider.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah.
Shaun Francis: And they check the box, we have the benefit, you know, it's in the manual, there's an 800 number, and there might be some, you know, value statements that we value this stuff. And that's pretty much where the journey ends. You know, is that sufficient? Or, you know, what are you doing tactically that would advance that? For our listeners, EAP stands for employee assistance program.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I would say that in today's day and age, that is wholly insufficient. So, of course, we do have EAP programs, but since COVID has started, we've also provided our 90,000 associates access to virtual health care and support if and when they need it throughout the pandemic. And then most recently, we've also launched a partnership with Thrive Global, and are making the Thrive Global app available to all 100,000 associates throughout Canada. And the app will help them build these micro steps into their lives to improve their overall health and wellness, through better sleeping habits, through better eating habits, you know, through better physical activity habits, through better mental agility habits.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: And this is actually something we recently sought after, because we knew that this pandemic was going to continue, that this is a marathon. And we wanted to continue to add tools into the toolbox for our associates to have what they needed to continue to cope and have the tools they needed to maintain their health and well being. So that's the most recent addition to the toolkit. In addition to that, we're training leaders, because I think what's important in this conversation is that we normalize the conversation so people can talk about mental health and well being, but also that our leaders know how to listen and act when someone's struggling. And really being able to have the compassionate conversations with the right context is a power skill that all our leaders need to have. So a lot of focus on training leaders as well, on how to identify signs of mental illness, mental health, and how to direct and support our associates if they need help.
Shaun Francis: So Thrive Global is an initiative of Arianna Huffington. How did it come to be?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah, so Arianna actually came to speak to the senior leadership group at Walmart Canada. And she came across the article I wrote on Mental Health Awareness Day about my baseline. She's been a role model of mine for many years, so I was quite smitten when I found out she actually read it. Yeah, and so we started a conversation after that, and decided to bring Thrive Global and the Thrive CP app to Canada and to all our associates.
Shaun Francis: And talk to me about the app for a moment. Is it all automated, or are there human-to-human interactions?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Yeah. So what's amazing about that Thrive CP app is that Walmart has commissioned this app with Thrive Global. And when you go into the app, it'll actually ask you if you're a Walmart associate, but it's actually free and available to everybody. You could be anyone. So the Thrive CP app, we've made it free, and it can be accessed for everyone. And then once you go into the app, you take a little bit of an assessment. It's got a plethora of knowledge on different aspects of well being, so eat, sleep, meditation and exercise. And you can go in there and make commitments to micro steps. Something as simple as just starting your morning with a glass of water and lemon or, you know, taking a 60-second reset in the middle of your day to meditate or to find a moment for mental meditation, or, you know, make commitments for sleep.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: The other thing that's great about the app is that we share each other's stories, so it creates a social context where Walmart associates are hearing and seeing from their colleagues and how they're applying these behaviours. And it's really through the power of storytelling that creates an incentive for others to do the same. Additionally, we've actually created an incentive for our associates. So associates who use the app, share their stories, are actually eligible for a monetary reward. So there's also an additional benefit to them besides their well being to participate.
Shaun Francis: In terms of accessing EAP, or proactive connectivity to psychological help, is it reactive? Or is there any proactivity?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: There's absolutely proactivity available for our associates to access EAP. We also have a very robust response system internally. If and when we have a leader who believes an associate needs extra care, we have a very robust way of responding to care for that associate internally, in addition to the benefits that we provide for them to seek help.
Shaun Francis: Now put the pandemic lens on this. Obviously, it's accelerated the use of virtual apps, and also the discussion around mental health because, you know, people have a tremendous amount of anxiety with uncertainty, I think, of how this is playing out. How has this affected how you're managing at Walmart, and then perhaps comment on, you know, what does the future look like?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: I mean, from a broad strokes perspective, what we're trying to focus is on taking care of the urgent in the moment, which is changing on a daily basis. And that means protecting the safety and well being of our associates and our customers, protecting the business and being able to provide an essential service to all Canadians with a daily, changing landscape, as we all know. So that's the urgent. And I feel like that focus will continue to be very high and prevalent for us, while also maintaining a focus on the really important and the more long term. At Walmart Canada, we're trying to transform the business, at the same time as dealing with the pandemic. And really both, you know, focusing on the urgent needs that we have today, and also transforming the business for the future.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: And when we think about the future, we believe that—as I said earlier, that well being and wellness is going to be a catalyst for growth. And that's where we're trying to build this muscle and mental agility and resilience in the organization, so that our entire population and workforce can have the organizational resilience to be relevant and continue to provide services for Canadians. And I think that's really the long game when we focus on well being and we focus on mental health and we focus on—is that you're building resilience in individuals, you're building resilience in the organization. And as we know, in this VUCA world that's ever-changing at a higher speed, that resilience is going to be essential to grow any business. So that's really the long-term focus is mental resilience, individual resilience, organizational resilience, leadership resilience. Lots of it, I think, has come by default, but we need to continue to build that muscle.
Shaun Francis: Walmart's a more traditional employer. Like you mentioned, it's essential services. And it has, you know, a massive in-person workforce that won't be on Zoom anytime soon. That said, many executive functions are now remote. And people comment and they say, you know, that might be the future, right? People will remain tele-videoing into meetings. What's your crystal ball showing you?
Nabeela Ixtabalan: Oh, yeah, sure. I don't believe we'll ever return to a situation where we're fully returned to offices. I think that's very clear. At the same time, I don't think remote work through a global pandemic is the right litmus test for the possibilities of what remote work can provide, because there's so many other compounding factors that are happening today: schooling at home, self isolation, you know, just all of the other things that come with the current situation. So my crystal ball is that remote work is here to stay, and it will be a prevalent form of work for the future. But we shouldn't necessarily use our current time and experience as the benchmark for what it can be. I think it can be a lot more rich than what it is today. I would also say that remote work doesn't mean that you never meet people and you never interact. There's definitely remote work models where you are actually meeting people and you are interacting, and I hope we get to that place and time soon.
Shaun Francis: Yeah. No, it's definitely a new world. And I think well, it draws you to stay inside, right? It's almost anti-wellness in so many ways, right? Because you're not walking to get your water and lemon, or you're not meeting a colleague, or you can have loneliness, or you can have back-to-back meetings, you're not getting out and seeing nature, right? So in some ways, it's the anti-wellness movement.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: This is actually something else that we've tackled. So at the beginning of the pandemic, we implemented no Zoom times. So we have a no Zoom window on Wednesday afternoon, where no Zooms are allowed to be scheduled. We also have no Zoom times from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., as well as during lunch period. And this was really so that we could respond to the fact that people were having to homeschool their kids, and needed that time in the morning to situate their children, needed the time to serve lunch, and needed time to kind of help their kids log off. We've also been immensely flexible with our associates who are dealing with both schooling and working, and really tried to take an individual response to each and every associate that needs that extra flexibility.
Nabeela Ixtabalan: And then we've continued to build on those norms. So encouraging things like taking walking meetings, or taking a phone call instead of Zoom. Just being able to walk around. And in all of our meetings, we've implemented wellness practices. So we start with a two-minute check in: how are you? Just simply asking how people are doing makes an immense difference. But then also making sure we provide the right types of breaks for people to stretch, and then doing group physical activity like stretching and/or, you know, some other activity. We've also encouraged our associates to do an audit of their workspace, so that they are physically set up in the right way, and making sure that they have access to the right tools and technology, such as standing desks or ergonomic chairs so that they can have a healthy workspace. So we, since the beginning of the pandemic have been giving our associates access to those things so they can have as healthy of an at-home workspace as possible.
Shaun Francis: This is fantastic. I want to thank you for your time.
Christopher Shulgan: That was Nabeela Ixtabalan, the executive vice president of people and corporate affairs at Walmart Canada, in conversation with our host, Shaun Francis. I'm executive producer Christopher Shulgan, and that's it for this episode of Eat Move Think. We'll post links to a text version of Ixtabalan's baseline, as well as numerous other articles she's written, and an edited video of Ixtabalan talking about her story at eatmovethinkpodcast.com.
Christopher Shulgan: Eat Move Think is produced by Ghost Bureau. Senior producer is Russell Gragg. Editorial and social media support from Emily Mannella, Tiffany Lewis and Chantel Guertin.
Christopher Shulgan: Remember to rate and subscribe to Eat Move Think on your favorite podcast platform. Follow our host Shaun Francis on Twitter and Instagram @Shauncfrancis—that's Shaun with a U—and Medcan @medcanlivewell. We'll be back soon with a new episode examining the latest in health and wellness.
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