I was reading Marvin Bains’ blog and I found his post about FullContact to be quite interesting. The company out of Denver offers its employees a $7500 bonus for vacations, as well as salary. They have also introduced an idea of “unlimited vacations,” where employees can negotiate the length and times of their vacationing.
As someone who wants to work for a firm in the future, the idea of unlimited vacations is very appealing to me. It certainly gains the loyalty of employees, and makes them happy in the process. However, is this the optimal solution when aspiring to gain loyalty? In my opinion, this policy could cause trouble for the company and other workers. While those on vacation will feel relaxed, the employees at home will be left to struggle with the burden of the increased workload. This policy may also facilitate laziness among the workers as they would rather be on vacation all the time. In addition, workers may feel indispensable as they can go on vacation often and not be let go, as there is a shortage of labour in the US market, and they will not work as hard. While the idea of “unlimited vacation” may be great for employees, both the benefits and costs of such a policy must be weighed in order to determine whether or not it is productive for the business. While the treatment of employees is important, the stability of the business must be prioritized, and such a vacation policy may harm productivity.
To gain loyalty, FullContact offers its employees “unlimited vacations”