Quiet Vacationing: Bosses, Your Team Members Might Just Be Vacationing Without You Knowing It; Here`s How And Why

According to a US survey, employers are often anxious about availing their paid leave, fearing their boss` negative reaction. In an unstable job market, many are taking breaks, albeit surreptitiously, to maintain their work-life balance. Read on to know details.

Quiet Quitting is passe. Now, it's the time of Quiet Vacationing, a recent lifestyle trend that seems to have caught up with the millennials, in particular. According to the Harris Poll - an American market research and analytics company that conducts surveys -  37 per cent in the US have admitted that they have taken time off without requesting it or even telling their bosses!

Anxious About Asking Leaves From Bosses

According to the survey, it's not the leave policy that is the issue. The problem lies with workplace culture and workload pressures. The survey mentions that the pressure to be available and the heavy workload are top barriers to taking more time, and in a tight economic market, Gen Z and Millennials fear employer reaction and career implications. That's why many employers are taking breaks, albeit surreptitiously, to maintain their work-life balance. 

What Is Quiet Vacationing And Why Is It Becoming Popular?

So it's more like workation, but employees are pretending to work from home. The Harris Poll survey says 65% of American workers say that they "find striking a balance between work commitments and personal time off to be challenging.” 76% said they wished their "workplace culture placed a stronger emphasis on the value of taking regular breaks and utilising paid time off.” In an environment where telling your employees that you need an off to recharge your batteries seems difficult, many do it on the sly. They zoom off to a holiday destination and work from there, often adjusting their schedules to fulfil their holiday aspirations. 38% of millennial workers have “moved their mouse” to maintain online status on the company’s messaging system, while 37% of millennial workers have scheduled a message to send outside of regular hours to give the impression they’re working extra hours.

Quiet Vacationing: The India Story

So what's the scene in India? While no survey has been conducted yet, many young professionals admit that they have taken a vacation, while they were supposed to be "working from home". Pranjal Tiwari (name changed), a business analyst from Delhi, shares, "Our company gives us over 20 days of earned leaves, apart from casual and sick leave. But if you ask for time off for a holiday, my manager comes up with many excuses. Sometimes, even if they are not directly saying no, the attitude will indicate they aren't happy. So few of my colleagues and I have gone to places like Dehradun, Landour and even Goa when we were supposedly working from home." He adds, "It's not like we shirked work, but managed to have a vacation without asking for leaves."

Sonali Shah of Mumbai shares, "I work for a content development company and I needed a few days off to visit my hometown in Patiala because my friend was visiting from abroad. But if I had given this reason, my boss would not have allowed me to go. I was working from home but my company mandates us to stay in location, and unless there's an emergency, they don't approve of working from remote locations. I didn't want to take all the trouble of making excuses but decided to 'work from home' from my hometown for that one week."