Coinbase announces a four-week break to recharge workers in 2022, with 'nearly the entire operation shutting down

"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,” said chief people officer L.J. Brock. 

Coinbase, a major crypto exchange in the United States, is giving its employees one week off each quarter in 2022 to recharge after "long days and long weeks" of intensive work.

L.J Brock, Coinbase's chief people officer, wrote on his company's blog that "nearly the entire company will shut down" for four weeks this year to allow for workers to recuperate after completing heavy workloads. Brock further added exchange employees are not necessarily limited to 40-hour workweeks, and they may be forced to pivot at a moment's notice, thus putting them at risk for burnout.

“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,” said Brock. “We knew this was unsustainable, so we scheduled a recharge week at the end of 2020 and two recharge weeks in 2021, when nearly the entire company would shut down Subsequent employee surveys made it clear: Recharge weeks work.”

“Four weeks of coordinated recharge time 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.”

According to Tokeneo News, in September 2021, crypto and blockchain-related job postings increased, with many companies then offering crypto payments to exploit the space's popularity and attract skilled talent.

The recent announcement by coinbase comes as U.S. workers push back against unfavorable job conditions and end up changing careers or quitting without a plan in place - a trend dubbed "The Great Resignation."