This is different than paid vacation and has some pros and cons. Obviously it doesn't have the flexibility of 1 week you can use whenever you want. But closing

This is different than paid vacation and has some pros and cons. Obviously it doesn't have the flexibility of 1 week you can use whenever you want. But closing the company for a week forces people to take the time off (some people just accumulate as much vacation as they can, either because they don't like taking it or because in some states you'll get cash for unused vacation). Making EVERYONE take the same week also helps avoid the existential dread of taking vacation because you feel burnt out, then coming back to a pile of 500 unread emails