What is quiet vacationing, and why are young worker-bees buzzing (quietly) about it?
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A leave of absence? Informing your boss? Get with the times, Gen X— employees are now taking off without talking about it. “Quiet’ vacationing”, if you will.
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Millennial and Gen Z workers are skillfully navigating remote and hybrid work patterns and leaving for vacation without formally announcing it or applying for personal time off. The logic is to disconnect just enough to have that fun-filled recharge, without disrupting workplace dynamics or taking on perception pressure.
But why not just apply for leave that you deserve as per law? Why are more and more employees hesitating to ask for a proper break? A 41-year-old chartered accountant working in the service industry in the NCR region explains that the process of taking leave is far from a breeze. “Even if your manager approves your leave, you are still answerable to the client, who could demand a backfill—a replacement to take over your work. And backfills aren’t always available, in which case you’re asked to finish all your work before taking leave, which isn’t humanly possible in a short duration.”
Balasubramanian Sethuraman, Jalpa Bhatt and Tejal Karia
It’s a bit like Cinderella being given permission to attend the royal ball, if she can finish all the sweeping, and the laundry, and darning… and find something appropriate to wear. “It’s been 12 or 13 years and the problem with getting leaves approved remains the same,” she says. To keep down time private, the canny CA takes precautionary measures such as not posting on social media, requesting others to not tag her in photos, and not adding office colleagues to social media networks. In June this year, she took a four-day family trip to Ramgarh in Uttrakhand to relax and unwind while also managing work full-time remotely.
Another professional, 43, who works as an assistant vice-president (AVP) in sales operations for an MNC in Delhi has similar complaints. “Work requires you to be available all the time, nowadays,” she explains. “Working from home has started demanding longer hours, and with the nature of my work, it usually goes on into the night. I don’t ask for time off because even if you take a leave, you are pulled into meetings and need to travel with a laptop.”
It’s natural to wonder whether these half-and-half escapes allow relaxation at all, and at what cost to productivity. “You have to plan the time off during lull periods at work or when you know that key stakeholders are away,” says the AVP, who has taken around three such trips this year. “I’m not able to completely switch off from work but that is never the intention. I’m available, just less responsive and if you have good connectivity, you are reachable for urgent requests. Still, just the change of environment and location helps keep things real—it’s a reminder that there is more to life than the city and rat-race.”
Tejal Karia, a psychologist and founder of Wise Ttalks, echoes the sentiment. “As a culture, we are very kinesthetic,” she says. “Working from home, especially during the pandemic, became claustrophobic. Vacations like these can refresh one’s mind. It’s a well-deserved break from circumstances that take a toll on mental health.” Karia also highlights the importance of maintaining a healthy balance while on quiet vacation, to be able to be recharged and productive simultaneously.
Corporate trainer and psychologist Jalpa Bhatt, who practises out of Mumbai and Ahmedabad, warns that declining employer-employee accountability is contributing to the rise in quiet vacationing. “People feel that if they ask for leave, they might face pay cuts or their job will be jeopardised. This work culture looks disruptive, but it’s going to be the next normal,” she says. Like Karia, she believes that quiet vacationing can be good for you. “If your productivity is up, you are contributing well, and your wellbeing is increasing, then it doesn’t matter if you are working on holiday.”
From the other side of the story, the trust conundrum is amplified. Balasubramanian Sethuraman, head of HR at Parekh Integrated Services, a supply chain service provider, talks about the importance of building a trustful relationship between employees and managers. “It’s crucial for employees to feel comfortable enough to inform their managers about taking leave,” he says. He explains that in India, there is a cultural tendency to connect beyond professional boundaries. This is an advantage as it allows employees to personally inform their managers through a call or WhatsApp text. “However, if employees presume their leave request will be rejected before even asking, it discourages transparency,” he clarifies.
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