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Video Link to story DENVER – Bart Lorang calls it a "paid, paid vacation." The CEO and co-founder of Denver-based software provider company FullContact is offering his employees a $7,500 bonus to go on vacation, on top of their normal vacation pay. So what's the catch? There's three, as Lorang describes in a blog on the company's website. First, employees must completely go off the technology grid, meaning no e-mail, texting or phone calls. In conjunction with the first rule, employees are not allowed to do any work while on their trip. Third, employees must actually go on a trip. Lorang explains he believes all his employees deserve a nice vacation, and he chose the $7,500 dollar amount because he believes it is enough for a family of four to take a trip to Mexico for a week. "We felt that everyone should have the opportunity to take a nice vacation without constantly worrying about how much money they’re spending while on vacation," Lorang blogged. Lorang tells KDVR he had the idea for the incentive when he was browsing photos of his trip to Egypt. He was struck by a photo of himself riding a camel among the pyramids, but he was texting. He says experiences like this have made him realized the value of completely disconnecting during a trip, and wants to encourage his employees to do so as well. Some of Lorang's software engineers that have taken him up on his offer say while it was difficult initially going off the grid, they ended up loving their completely unplugged vacation. “Absolutely fantastic. I mean you get so used to waking up to emails in the morning,” engineer Kyle Hansen tells KDVR. His coworker Robbie Jack says thoÎgh it was hard to give up his gadgets for the trip, he found it extremely beneficial. “The biggest benefit is when you get back. You’re so much more invigorated, recharged,” Jack told KDVR. Lorang says he hopes the bonus entices top talent to his company as well, saying he has trouble finding qualified engineers. In fact, he says FullContact is hiring, for positions including iOS and Mac developer, platform engineer and a role in business development. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/16/den.../#ixzz21SWTRyCd
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::begins prepping his resume::
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Don't know why more companies don't do stuff like this. The costs will pay off in the long run with happy, loyal, high quality employees.
Personally, I like the idea of a 4-6 week sabbatical every 5 years ... paid. Now that's an incentive.
LOL - The Rish will be upset with this news as well. KS just doesn't prioritize winning...
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Quote:
Don't know why more companies don't do stuff like this. The costs will pay off in the long run with happy, loyal, high quality employees.
Personally, I like the idea of a 4-6 week sabbatical every 5 years ... paid. Now that's an incentive.
Agree with everything you said.
Per sabbaticals, I'm a lucky one there. We get our first at 10 years, and again every 5. 100 hours on the company, 100 hours of vacation time, plus any extra you want to add one. I had my first in 2010, 6 weeks off - the first was chill in town, getting used to being off - then traveled within the US on a couple trips. It is a huge benefit, especially in an intense environment with very long hours. I came back to work very relaxed and worry free.
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Cool idea, really. It'd be nice to see more companies try and do this. Regarding the technology bit... 
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i like the part about making a vacation real (i.e. no work while on "vacation").
but, the bonus is likely just a "shifted" employee bonus from a different time of year (so, the year-end bonus is magically $7500 less).
and, if they actually enforce the portion about the employees "leaving" on vacation, then it's ridiculous (why should my employer tell me how I should spend my time/money when I'm on vacation. if I want to sit at home and do a bunch of home improvements, then that's fine)
#gmstrong
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So if your boss says I'll give you $7500 to go on vacation but you can't stay home, Your going to turn it down because you want to do home improvements?  You WANT me to go on vacation AND you'll give me an extra 7500 on top of my vacation pay to go? When do you want me to leave, and how long should I stay away?
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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So if your boss says I'll give you $7500 to go on vacation but you can't stay home, Your going to turn it down because you want to do home improvements?
You WANT me to go on vacation AND you'll give me an extra 7500 on top of my vacation pay to go? When do you want me to leave, and how long should I stay away?
like I said, in the end, it isn't working out that way IMO.
it's more like my boss saying: we used to give you $10K bonus in January, but now we're going to give you $2500 in January and $7500 whenever you go on vacation. And, btw, you need to go away when you get that $7500 and I don't care if you need the money to pay down debt, home improvements, or anything else.
#gmstrong
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Quote:
Quote:
So if your boss says I'll give you $7500 to go on vacation but you can't stay home, Your going to turn it down because you want to do home improvements?
You WANT me to go on vacation AND you'll give me an extra 7500 on top of my vacation pay to go? When do you want me to leave, and how long should I stay away?
like I said, in the end, it isn't working out that way IMO.
it's more like my boss saying: we used to give you $10K bonus in January, but now we're going to give you $2500 in January and $7500 whenever you go on vacation. And, btw, you need to go away when you get that $7500 and I don't care if you need the money to pay down debt, home improvements, or anything else.
Did they say that? Did they say they paid bonuses? how much they were? that they were lowering the other bonuses?
Not saying your wrong, but I am saying that's just speculation unless you have info we don't.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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i didnt read that either. i think somebody's jealous 
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no, they didn't say that and yes it was speculation (and i said that it's how i think it's going to work).
but, a company isn't going to just decide overnight to push $7500/employee unless they have found they need to in order to keep up with the going rate of engineers in the area. so, even if they are not "taking it away" then it could have been money they "gave" to them rather than "mandated"
just saying, that while it sounds nice as a marketing tool for the company, I personally don't like my employer to tell me how to spend my money.
#gmstrong
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So you would turn down $7500 because you don't want someone to tell you how to spend it?  The way I see it, it's not all that different from a company offering money to help pay for college.
It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great!
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So you would turn down $7500 because you don't want someone to tell you how to spend it?
no. if it was my only choice. as can be seen that this company isn't finding engineers in their area, they are clearly not the only choice in town.
#gmstrong
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The argument would be is that if the company is giving you $7500 with restrictions...they were probably going to give it to you anyways without the restrictions. Reminds me of social security. The employer has to pay a certain amount, but they basically just deduct it from your salary as an expense. All in all I dont particularly care about any of this though. Id rather we be discussing something relevant like apple cider recipes. 
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year-end bonus, what's that?
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year-end bonus, what's that?
samsung doesn't have some type of Employee Bonus?
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I personally don't like my employer to tell me how to spend my money.
It's not your money, it's his money.... and he is giving it to you for a specific purpose. It's no different than if he paid a few grand for you to go to a seminar on the other side of the country... in exchange for the money you have to go to this seminar that he feels will make you a better employee... so he's giving you $7500 to go on vacation and actually enjoy yourself and get some R&R because he feels it will make you a better/more productive employee...
yebat' Putin
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Yeah, we have a quarterly bonus based on our fab's performance against certain performance targets. It usually has a lot more to do with whoever decides what the targets will be than what our actual performance vs. expected performance will be. This last quarter was pretty good (due mainly to easily-achievable goals moreso than outstanding effort and execution IMO.) We can get between zero and a certain-number-of-weeks-salary bonus per quarter (don't want to go into details and get into trouble.)
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but, the bonus is likely just a "shifted" employee bonus from a different time of year (so, the year-end bonus is magically $7500 less).
If doesn't say that, so where did you come up with that?
#GMSTRONG
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Damanshot
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If you don't like it, then don't accept it. It's a perk. It doesn't say that it is a requirement. It is an option. You still get your vacation time, to do whatever you want. But if you want to unplug and get away there is an option to get an extra $7500. Seems like a pretty awesome plan to me. And the fact that you would turn down a $7500 vacation seems a little to me.
KeysDawg
The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. - Carl Sagan
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Quote:
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but, the bonus is likely just a "shifted" employee bonus from a different time of year (so, the year-end bonus is magically $7500 less).
If doesn't say that, so where did you come up with that?
He is assuming that this money is coming from somewhere, likely an existing bonus pool of money and that the employer isn't taking it from somewhere else... which honestly isn't a bad assumption... but it is an assumption none the less.
I have no idea how many employees are able to take advantage of this play, but it does seem a bit far fetched that this company is just sitting on all of this money and thought this would be a good way to spend it.
I do hope these people remember that this would count as taxable income.
yebat' Putin
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I'd have to believe that if it was coming from another pool of money such as a different bonus plan, thus lessening it, someone would have said so.
No, I think it's just extra..
#GMSTRONG
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Damanshot
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at the company i work for, the owner takes everyone out to eat at Outback once a month (50+) employees, buys pizzas every friday for lunch, and always throws in little "perks" on our paychecks at random.
he doesnt do it with some hidden agenda or by taking money from a different department. he does it because
a) he wants to keep us happy and keep us employed since he spent money training us
and b) he's filthy rich and has that kind of money
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That is the advantage to a small business, the owners often are more hands on, and the relationships from the top down are much more personal.
Where I work, our owners share a percentage of the company profit every month, if we profit more, we get more. Which is incentive to keep errors in check as mistakes cost the bottom line. During the really good building years, we got annual bonuses as well once the taxes were finished.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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I'd have to believe that if it was coming from another pool of money such as a different bonus plan, thus lessening it, someone would have said so.
No, I think it's just extra..
So you are both just speculating. cool. 
yebat' Putin
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7500 in vegas would go a long way, lol
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at the company i work for, the owner takes everyone out to eat at Outback once a month (50+) employees, buys pizzas every friday for lunch, and always throws in little "perks" on our paychecks at random.
he doesnt do it with some hidden agenda or by taking money from a different department. he does it because
a) he wants to keep us happy and keep us employed since he spent money training us
and b) he's filthy rich and has that kind of money
and those are as good a reasons as any... you guys probably love it right?
I worked for a small employment agency in the 70's when I first broke into the business. Only 4 of us in the office. The boss, and three guys.
We had sales quotas,, he would challenge us.., you do this amount this month, and I'll take you out on a camping trip.. can't tell you how many times we went on camping trips.
He had individual monthly sales contests., you produce X and be the high producer, you and the wife get a weekend in the Bahamas. Hotel, Air, meals, spending money.. the works..
in the 6 years I worked for him, I went on at least 1 camping trip a year and I went to the Bahamas 3 years but I decided on Atlanta once, Sanabel Island once and Nashville another time.. I won at least one of those trips a year.
Too bad he changed the way he did things.. got a little greedy, tried to grow to fast, elected to trade off size for a good company environment. when that happened, I no longer fit in and I left. Still miss those days. I'll say this, he offered me my job back about 4 years later but I didn't do it. then he did it again in 1998 and again, I didn't do it. If anything, from what I could see, it only got worse.
In 2008, hiring was so dead that he actually shut the doors, laid everyone off, worked out of the house but I kept right on truckin.
today, he's back to having a small office and running with 3 people again. that's it.
Perhaps he learned. dunno. Hope so, he is a really great guy and I bet I could walk in and get a job there in a New York Second...
#GMSTRONG
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Damanshot
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Daman I'm not saying your guy did the right thing or anything but I've worked for companies before that had tremendous perks like big bonuses and trips etc... then times get tough and those things go away and people became upset because they had come to feel entitled... they weren't bonuses anymore, they were a "normal" part of their compensation...
Plus, it is fiscally impossible to run a bigger company with the same perks as a smaller company
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Plus, it is fiscally impossible to run a bigger company with the same perks as a smaller company
I don't think that is always the case - look at Google and SAS Institute; they are two very large companies that offer incredible perks. SAS Institute is private, so it makes it a lot easier to offer the perks that they do. But there are public companies that do the same on occasion.
Granted, if their profits turn south things will of course get taken away and if employees are used to getting it I'm sure it will not go over well.
I've ranted about public companies on here many times - a place like SAS, so long as the owner is making enough money to make him happy, can continue to give perks all he wants. Public companies, even if they make billions of dollars in a quarter will have to slash workforce, perks, etc because numbers weren't met. That to me has never made sense, but I guess I'm not smart enough to understand. I of course profit off of public companies in my retirement account, but it still makes little sense to me. I'm too logical for that kind of stuff to make a whole lot of sense I guess.
I've often said if my company becomes wildly successful to the point where I hire lots of people I want to model it after SAS. To me, they are the pinnacle of how a company should be run. Their turnover rate is 5% (with about 6k employees) which is unheard of. The owner doesn't want to go public even with the pressure he has gotten to do so because he wants to keep the perks, no questions asked.
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Valve, creators of the half-life franchise and the Steam online gaming service, sends the entire company on a weekly vacation together every year including your family. Last year it was Hawaii. And if for some reason you cant make the trip, they cut you a check for how much it would cost them to send you 
#gmstrong
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It's pretty common that many of the investment banks, hedge funds & other wall street shops here in NY have condos and houses in far flung places that people in the company can use for free if they schedule it and no one higher up is using it at the time. My wife's best friend is the office manager for a mid-town hedge and she goes to the cayman islands or turks and caicos for 2 weeks every year all expenses paid. The cayman joint is an estate with multiple bungalows and private beach, pool, chef etc etc. She knows how much it all costs because she's privy to most expenses etc but most people in the office never know how much they would be spending if they were paying for it. Of course the whole thing is part of their big tax haven but that's another conversation.
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Quote:
i like the part about making a vacation real (i.e. no work while on "vacation").
but, the bonus is likely just a "shifted" employee bonus from a different time of year (so, the year-end bonus is magically $7500 less).
and, if they actually enforce the portion about the employees "leaving" on vacation, then it's ridiculous (why should my employer tell me how I should spend my time/money when I'm on vacation. if I want to sit at home and do a bunch of home improvements, then that's fine)
I realize everyone has a different way of seeing things and everyone will view a story differently BUT:
When I read this I was like WOW what a Perk and you were able to find a pessimistic view to the story. I would have to believe and speculate that this is not taken from another bonus as if it were it would spark resentment that it was taken away.
I'm with FloridaFan Quote:
You WANT me to go on vacation AND you'll give me an extra 7500 on top of my vacation pay to go? When do you want me to leave, and how long should I stay away?
As I said everyone has different opinions but it will continue to amaze me how someone will always see the negative in every situation. My only question would be do I have to go to Mexico as I have no desire to ever go there.
The Views Expressed By Me Are Not Necessarily The Views That You Will Agree With, I'm In My Own Little World But They Know Me Here.
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ok, I realize that I took the pessimistic side on this issue. and, I must have done a poor job relaying why.
I will try one more time for what I think likely happened here:
The company notes that they have had a tough time attracting quality engineers. It is very likely this is because they do not compensate their employees as well as other places in their locale. Therefore, they needed to do something to fix that to attract new engineers as well as maintain the ones that they currently employ.
The "true" vacation portion of it is brilliant as "working" vacations can actually cause more stress than normal work weeks (as your family wants you on vacation, your work trying to get you to respond to emails, etc.). That is a great incentive to have to attract and maintain.
My opinion on the $7500 bonus portion though is that they knew they had to spend more money on employees, so why not just make it a "pure" bonus. They can even grant it when employees take the vacation (though most engineers I would think prefer a rigid scheduled bonus), but why mandate what the employee needs to do with it? That is all.
#gmstrong
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The only thing is when I read the story I just thought wow what a perk and you was able to read into it that somehow the company must be screwing them.
The Views Expressed By Me Are Not Necessarily The Views That You Will Agree With, I'm In My Own Little World But They Know Me Here.
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Valve, creators of the half-life franchise and the Steam online gaming service, sends the entire company on a weekly vacation together every year including your family. Last year it was Hawaii. And if for some reason you cant make the trip, they cut you a check for how much it would cost them to send you
They also don't have bosses, right? They just have the deadlines for their projects and have to meet them.
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7500 in vegas would go a long way, lol
Until you hit the tables and started drinking. About 3:30am hits.....it's gone.
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Quote:
7500 in vegas would go a long way, lol
Until you hit the tables and started drinking. About 3:30am hits.....it's gone.
as long as we save some money for the breakfast buffet it's all good!
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jc, but did anyone else notice the companies you all listed Google, banks, Steam, all are companies that don't make physical product?
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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Google makes phones now (Motorola Mobility acquisition) along with their Nexus tablets. They didn't start in manufacturing, so I can see where you are coming from though.
And while software is not a "physical" product, it is still a product that is created and purchased or has some other channel of revenue generation (advertising, etc).
#gmstrong
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The company notes that they have had a tough time attracting quality engineers. It is very likely this is because they do not compensate their employees as well as other places in their locale.
Or it could be that there just aren't enough qualified engineers to fill all of the positions and it's competitive to get the best ones.
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My opinion on the $7500 bonus portion though is that they knew they had to spend more money on employees, so why not just make it a "pure" bonus.
Because he sees the benefit of having employees go have fun for a week as opposed to building a new deck or paying off the Mastercard...
yebat' Putin
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Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Company pays it's employees to go
on vacation
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