Coinbase is giving employees 4 'recharge' weeks off this year, where nearly the entire company will shut down to avoid work from piling up

• The cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase is giving employees 4 "recharge" weeks off this year.
• Nearly the whole company will shut down approximately one week per quarter to avoid work piling up.

Coinbase if giving employees four full weeks off this year in a move that aims to balance out the company's "intense work culture," according to a blog post written by the crypto company's chief people officer L.J. Brock.

During the employee "recharge weeks," nearly the entire company will shut down in order to avoid work from piling up. The firm-wide vacation will be distributed approximately one week per quarter.

Brock noted that Coinbase is a "winning team, not a family" and often requires long and unpredictable hours.

"For most of us, Coinbase is the most intense place we've ever worked," the post says. "That intensity is only magnified by the current moment in crypto, and it often results in long days and long weeks."

The cryptocurrency exchange first experimented with recharge weeks in 2020 after discovering that many employees weren't taking time-off "because they didn't want to force their teammates to cover for them" or fall behind.

"We don't promise 9 a.m. — 5 p.m. hours or 40-hour work weeks — many days and weeks are long, because that's what it takes to get the job done," Brock wrote in the Monday announcement titled "Working at Coinbase: Intense and demanding, balanced by deliberate recharge time."

Over half of employees said the recharge weeks were their primary source of rest and recovery in surveys administered by Coinbase. The company is remote-first and allows workers to choose if they prefer to work remotely or in-person.