Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is giving four weeks of coordinated recharge time to its staff, in a bid to avoid employee burnout, in yet another intense year for the company.
“This year, we’re experimenting with four recharge weeks (roughly one per quarter), when nearly the entire company will shut down so we can all enjoy downtime without work piling up,” Chief People Officer L.J. Brock wrote in a company blog post published earlier this week.
Coinbase went public through a direct listing on the Nasdaq in April last year. Coinbase stock has fallen 5.87% year-to-date, according to data from Marketwatch.
The company added that while this “might sound like a lot of time off for a company in hypergrowth, but given the intensity of our work throughout the year, we think this is the best way to ensure our pace is sustainable for the long term.”
In 2020, Coinbase said its employees didn’t take enough time off to reboot, either because they didn’t want to force their teammates to cover for them or because they didn’t want to fall behind on their work.
“We knew this was unsustainable, so we scheduled a recharge week at the end of 2020 and two recharge weeks in 2021,” the company said.
It worked. 52% of Coinbase employees said recharge days and weeks were the primary tool that helped them rest and recover in 2021, the company added.
Why It Matters
Coinbase operates as a remote-first company, and has no physical headquarters.
The new time-off policy comes at a time when interest around crypto investments is at an all time high, amid fluctuating prices and broader market selloffs.
“For most of us, Coinbase is the most intense place we’ve ever worked. That intensity is only magnified by the current moment in crypto, and it often results in long days and long weeks,” the company wrote.
Coinbase is among a a growing list of companies that are giving more time off in an effort to keep employees happy, to avoid burnout and prevent a mass exodus during the ongoing pandemic. LinkedIn gave the entire company the week off in April of last year, and the popular dating app Bumble (BMBL) – Get Bumble, Inc. Class A Report did the same in June.
Burnout is said to be one of the contributors to the “Great Resignation” over the past several months, during which a record number of people have quit their jobs.
