Monday, July 16, 2012

FullContact's Unusual Paid Vacation Policy

In what might be the most unique vacation policy around, Denver-based cloud services provider FullContact, the TechStars graduate that is backed by Foundry Group, High Country Venture, 500 Startups, and others, announced last week that it has launched a unique vacation program. The startup said it will pay its employees $7500 -- on top of their existing paid vacation time -- to go on vacation, once a year. The company said it will provide each employee $7500 to go on vacation, once a year, with a few conditions: employees have to go on vacation, or they don't get money; they must disconnect (no email/phone) on vacation; and that employees can't work on vacation. The company said the amount is roughly equivalent of the cost of a family of four to take a vacation to Mexico. program is highly unusual in the cut-throat, work-till-you-drop culture of startups. The company explained its idea behind the program, saying that it believes that the move will help the company improve. Revealingly, the startup also noted that it is currently hiring.