What is 'quiet vacationing'?

There’s another workplace trend to look out for - 'quiet vacationing' - and it’s a further example of gen Z and millennial workers attempting to reclaiming ownership of their work life balance.

You may have heard of ‘quiet quitting’, which came to prominence last year on TikTok, described as a way for workers to empower themselves and redraw boundaries between work and play.

It started out as an empowering way for employees to reset work and home boundaries eroded by the pandemic, and essentially involved workers carrying out their contractual obligations and nothing more – pushing back at work culture that called on staff to go ‘above and beyond’ without extra pay or recognition.

Now, another trend has emerged online – and this time it’s ‘quiet vacationing’, which takes things a step further and actually taking leave without informing their employers.

It comes as new research has found that nearly four in 10 millennials have taken unofficial time off without going through the proper protocols and informing their manager.

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That’s according to The Harris Poll’s Out of Office Culture Report from May which surveyed 1,170 adults employed in the US.

The chief strategy of The Harris Poll, Libby Rodney spoke about the trend in an interview with CNBC, saying: “There’s a giant workaround culture at play. They will figure out how to get appropriate work-life balance, but it’s happening behind the scenes. It’s not exactly quiet quitting, but more like quiet vacationing.”

Speaking to Fortune, Rodney said: “Instead of going at it head-to-head and worrying about if you’ll rustle the feathers of your boss during a tight economic quarter, millennials are just kind of doing what they need to do to take their vacation.

“It’s definitely not a healthy system, but it’s a system that is happening with the American worker right now,” Rodney added.

“The in-office culture has not shifted, even though our values and the American worker values have shifted. The experience and the expectations are almost as if the pandemic never happened.

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