Putting Patient Care & Employee Health First: A Peek Into House Rx’s Approach to Vacation Policy

At House Rx, we’re a remote-first company, so we need to think differently about how to help our employees show up as their best selves every day. That includes time away from work – for rest, adventures, and taking care of ourselves and our families. To that end, we offer 20 days of vacation plus generous sick leave and paid holidays. And we actually encourage our employees to take those days to rest.

A lot of startups celebrate their “unlimited vacation” policies as proof that they are committed to work-life balance. But what we’ve experienced – and which the data backs up – is that most people at companies with unlimited vacation policies don't actually feel empowered to take time away. Without knowing how much they should take, folks default to taking as little time as possible. Worse, sometimes they’re even implicitly or explicitly encouraged not to take time off.

Employees with unlimited vacation take 2 days less of vacation each year than employees with a set vacation policy. source

High performers tend to take an average of 19 vacation days per year, while individuals who scored lower took only 14 days. source

When it comes to vacation, we walk the talk. We expect everyone to take all of their vacation time each year. And we encourage managers to check in if it seems someone isn’t taking enough time to recharge, and to support their team members in actually taking time off.

A set vacation policy also supports our mission of making specialty medication more accessible and affordable. The backbone of House Rx is the dedicated team of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and care coordinators who guide patients through the otherwise dizzying process of filling their specialty drug prescription. The clinics and patients we work with need to know that we’ve got their backs.

In short, we’re excited to have a set and generous vacation policy – it helps us make sure that we’re there for patients while also taking care of ourselves.