Coinbase Closing Down for Four Weeks So Employees Can Chill

One doesn’t run a marathon each day and expect that months or years later they will still be able to put in a solid effort. Anything with an intense ongoing effort requires idle time, and a chance to recharge before getting back to the difficult pace. This is the reason Coinbase is giving employees four full weeks where production essentially shuts down – to balance out their “intense work culture.”

According to its blog published this week about company culture, written by its chief people officer, nearly the entire company will shut down in order to avoid work from piling up. The shutdown time won’t be consecutive weeks but instead scheduled approximately one week per quarter.

The cryptocurrency exchange that went
public in April of 2021 first experimented with “recharge weeks” in 2020 after discovering that many employees weren’t taking time off. The blog post explains, “Despite our FTO policy for most employees, we realized in 2020 that many employees weren’t taking enough time off to recharge, 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.” The chief people officer explained the culture is not one of family, but one of teamwork. This forced time out prevents employees from undermining the success of themselves or the company that could occur if they did not take a breather. Coinbase teams with critical 24/7 responsibilities, such as customer service and security, scheduled alternate recharge weeks.

The blog post discusses company culture by saying, “For most of us, Coinbase is the most intense place we’ve ever worked,” it explains “That intensity is only magnified by the current
moment in crypto, and it often results in long days and long weeks.” This is why the forced time off is critical. During the employee “recharge weeks,” nearly the entire company will shut down in order to avoid work from piling up.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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