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Summer is approaching, but the summer season is not arriving quickly enough for the taste of some employees, who are impatient to get away from the office. An eagerness that pushes them to slow down at work, or even to take a vacation, without telling their boss.
This practice is commonly called “quiet vacationing”. It involves taking days off without notifying your manager or colleagues. On paper, this seems difficult, if not impossible. But “silent vacationers” are masters of illusion. They set up their work email on their phone to make it look like they’re telecommuting, when in reality they’re sipping a cocktail by a sandy beach. The most daring ones even go so far as to schedule messages to be sent late in the evening, to pretend they are working overtime.
This concept comes straight from the United States, and is intended to be a criticism of the American model in terms of paid leave. Because, in Uncle Sam’s country, it is not always easy to go on vacation. Most Americans only get 15 days off per year. And few people take them all. Many only sit for a few days here and there, for fear of being seen as slackers. 78% do not use the maximum number of paid leave days granted by their employer. According to a Harris Poll conducted with 1,170 employees. Millennials and members of Generation Z are even more numerous in this scenario.
In this context, we better understand why some Americans take incognito leave. But “quiet vacationing” remains a marginal practice. Only 28% of the country’s workers have already used it, according to the same Harris Poll. Not surprisingly, young people are more reckless than their elders when it comes to truanting. 37% of millennials have already taken a vacation behind their boss’s back, compared to only 18% of baby boomers.
These disparities between generations can certainly be explained by the fact that young workers strive more than their predecessors to maintain a better balance between their professional and personal lives. But regardless of their age, Americans agree that they would like their employers to encourage them more to take time off. Some already do it. Companies like LinkedIn, Dropbox, Adobe and Netflix offer unlimited time off to their employees so they can recharge whenever they want. According to the survey, 7% of Americans would benefit from this unlimited vacation policy.
For those who have a limited number of vacations per year, be careful not to give in to the lure of “quiet vacationing.” It should be kept in mind that this practice is playing with fire and can be legally reprehensible. If the employee is caught red-handed, he or she faces serious disciplinary sanctions, or even dismissal. So be careful.