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Company Pays Employees To Take Vacations

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - It's a problem a lot of people run into during the summer. How can they get time off and the money for an amazing vacation.

Well a company in Denver, FullContact Inc., not only provides the time off, it also gives its workers a big bonus to use it.

"We strongly believe that people are far too connected," said Bart Lorang, founder and CEO of FullContact which has one of the most generous vacation policies in the country.

"Our policy is something called 'paid, paid vacation'," said Lorang. "We pay them an additional $7,500 to take a vacation and go off the grid."

With the extra money Lorang said his employees have gone to Norway Finland, Indonesia and Costa Rica.

"It takes about three days to digitally detox," said Lorang. "and they sort of wake up and say hey there's my husband, my wife, my kids."

But there's a catch. Employees must take a minimum of three weeks off and can't check their email while they are away.

"It was hard at first I have to admit," said Jessica Nolan.

She said she checks her phone every few minutes while at work, but while using this 'work perk' on vacation in Brazil and Argentina, she was able to cut the cord.

"It's a really important exercise, to force yourself to know that no one is going to die if you are out," said Nolan.

So why would a company do this?

"Burn out is a huge risk for organizations," said human resources expert Elaine Varelos.

She said policies like this keep employees refreshed, productive and in the tech world. It also works as a recruiting tool.

In previous years, a number of businesses tried out an 'unlimited vacation' structure, but it didn't work. Seems employees actually took fewer days off because of peer pressure inside the workplace.

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