Paid Paid Vacations?

I recently came across an article from 2015 on my Twitter timeline about a tech CEO paying his employees an additional $7,500 to go on a vacation with their annual 2 weeks of paid time off. This concept intrigued me, so I looked further into the structure of this company’s vacation program. The Denver-based CEO only gives his employees the $7,500 to finance a vacation, the stipend cannot be accepted as a bonus. He stated that the only additional rules for the stipend is to not check work emails, text, or calls while on the vacation.

Thus creating a fully paid for vacation that truly is a VACATION. This time off model shows flaws amongst many other industries' vacation structures. There are many people who can take vacation days to simply relax at home when they don’t want to pay for travel, but even then they most likely are keeping in contact with work via email or texts. This unique structure from the article allows for a complete disconnect from the office and actually allows for travel - the kind of travel that doesn’t make you feel like you’re blowing through a retirement fund! This model allows for a designated time to destress, and the CEO stated that the structure actually worked really well for his company’s productivity and employee satisfaction.

However, a concept like this cannot fully work across all industries. For example, my internship at a digital consulting agency has certain high-profile clients that can be demanding from the employees who manage their accounts, and usually offer tight deadlines. Hypothetically, this would mean that if an account manager was on their designated vacation time and someone in the office who is less familiar with that employee's clients has to complete an unexpected urgent task, they would 100% need to get in contact with the account manager - vacation or not. There are many other professions that this same scenario would hold true as well. However, the tech CEO offers a counter-argument, stating that his structure allows for an office culture that can’t depend on one person for a particular task. Interesting point - but would this work across all offices?

The point being that there is no perfect answer to time off or work schedules that maximize productivity. The issue is more industry specific or maybe even office-specific. However, I do think management teams or small-business owners can look into studies about 4 day weeks or vacation policies similar to the Denver-based tech company, and see if they could implement new policies that have worked for companies in similar industries.

It can be easy to think the Monday - Friday 9:00 - 5:00 office week is the norm and to stick with it, but it’s proven that employees feel more motivated to work harder for a company that makes them feel as if their well being is a priority. Even simply offering a schedule that is more ideal for both the company and employee makes the employee feel that they should work hard to keep the structure that works best for them. Whether that be allowing them to come in late/leave early to drop off/pick up their kids or simply an extra day off, they’re going to want to keep what they view as an ideal work structure. Even if the office can’t financially support a “paid paid” vacation, think of the small things that benefit employees and hopefully they’ll work hard in return.

Nothing feels better than loving your job.