Burnout is a serious problem at work. With prolonged exposure to pressure, having too much work on their tables, and experiencing stress in and out of work, employees end up being too tired, moody, and unusually forgetful. Their productivity suffers, too.
A CEO of a marketing and advertising company gives his employees a chance to go on an unlimited vacation to make sure burnout doesn’t happen in his company.
Mark Douglas is even giving them as much as $2,000 to spend on their vacation. He doesn’t care whether an employee divides that amount into several trips or spend it all in one trip. It also doesn’t matter where the employees go. As long as there’s nothing illegal with the trip, the company will provide the money.
The employees can only get that $2,000 if they are going on time off. If they insist on getting the money as a bonus, they would be denied because Mark really wants his employees to go somewhere and have fun.
He said in an interview:
“It’s one thing to say ‘You have three weeks vacation,’ like most companies do. It’s another thing to say ‘You have cash, and if you don’t go on vacation and spend this money, the money literally goes to waste.’ It’s another level of saying this is real.”
Most employees don’t really go out on a vacation even if they can. They think that the money they’ll be spending on that trip is better spent on things that are more important, like paying rent, clearing debt, and building emergency funds. They would rather keep the money rather than use it to treat themselves for the hard work that they do.
What those employees don’t realize is that taking a break from work has tons of benefits and this initiative proves that.
The results of Mark’s policy is really impressive.
In the last couple of years, there were only 5 people who left the company out of its 250 employees. Three of them have reasons that weren’t related to the job. Mark’s company has had virtually zero turnovers.
In addition to that, they have also shown better productivity. They tend to come to work with more energy and enthusiasm.
The policy promotes trust, too.
If an employee decided to go on a vacation and buys a plane ticket on a Monday, he’ll be able to reimburse the amount the very next day. If he’s unable to pay for the ticket upfront, he can use the company credit card to make the payment.
Once he returns from the vacation, he can start making a list of everything he bought and paid for during the trip. The company will reimburse them from their $2,000 fund.
Mark believes that every company can implement the same policy even though it may feel scary and intimidating at first. He is also hoping that his employees would be able to start their own companies that will follow the same culture and policies.
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