It wasn’t until I had kids that I realized that all vacations aren’t the same. When you have three kids and are heading to the beach with 8 other families, a vacation isn’t relaxing. It’s fun. It’s a reunion. It’s a non-stop, Oreo-filled, reading-on-the-porch, jumping-in-the-waves, cleaning-sand-out-of-everything event. But it’s not relaxing. And when we finally return from the beach, I’ve found that I’m not quite as well-rested as I hoped to be.
Thankfully, I work at TransLoc.
This is a different blog post than might normally be found here on the TransLoc blog—but it’s an important one. It’s important to share the insider’s perspective on our company culture, because I believe it is as vital to our success as anything else. You see, at TransLoc, our purpose is to create seamless mobility for all. That purpose helps us attract the best people, which helps us build the best products, and those products ultimately lead to profits.
This focus on purpose, people, products, and profits (in that order) is not unique to TransLoc, but I did want to give you my perspective on how TransLoc’s commitment to that philosophy is unique. First, TransLoc provides a $1,000 bonus to take an actual, restorative vacation somewhere. That’s in addition to your normal paycheck. The point is to take a break from email and actually enjoy some time away.
And if that’s not enough, like many technology companies, TransLoc offers unlimited vacation. By hiring mature adults, trusting them to do their job, and empowering them to do so, TransLoc doesn’t care whether I take 1 week, 2 weeks, or more. No one is tracking my days and I don’t have to either.
For the last three years, after my less-than-relaxing vacation at the beach, I’ve been taking an additional week off so that I have two whole weeks away. Two weeks without standing meetings. Two weeks without checking email. And two weeks away from the never-ending to-do list.
I treat this time away each year as a mini-sabbatical. I use it to tackle projects at home that never get done—my hedges look good! I use it to try a new exercise class at my gym that I’ve been meaning to try—Hard Core is descriptive! I use it to engage in my hobbies—BBQ, anyone? I use it to help improve my community—meeting about fundraising plans for the Diaper Bank of North Carolina (Diaper on!). I use it to improve myself—reading an interesting book on applying Agile software design to personal productivity (Getting Results the Agile Way). And I use it to think about work.
Not to do work. I’m on vacation after all. But I use it to think about work. What am I doing well? What could I improve on? What is happening in the industry that I haven’t focused on but I should? As I remove myself from the day-to-day of my job and get some space to do other things, thoughts start to creep in. Thoughts that I send in emails to myself so I don’t forget.
By the end of the second week, when I’ve truly relaxed, I can tell I’m ready to return to work—to hit the ground running. I’ll return with a rested mind, a refreshed perspective, and an even greater appreciation for the work we do everyday at TransLoc and the people I’m lucky enough to do it with. #TransLocLife is real, and it matters.
If you’re interested in joining us in creating seamless mobility for all, we’d love to have you. Check out our open positions and introduce yourself!