Is quiet vacationing okay to do?

Hey friends! Hope everyone had the best long weekend (if you had one). And if not, read on to see how you could maybe take one… 

Today’s Tunes: Weezer’s “Island In The Sun” instantly makes us think of piña coladas and suntan lotion. Two essentials when you’re quiet vacationing. Just saying. 🤷

Is Quiet Vacationing Okay To Do?

“A new bombshell enters the villa.” No, but like literally. While we all know about quiet quitting… maybe some a little more than others (your secret’s safe with us 👀). Meet quiet vacationing.

The latest workplace trend that Millennials and Gen Z are embracing is quiet vacationing, a term for taking time off of work without taking PTO. This new way of taking a break could be attributed to the increased value and appreciation of the work/life balance the pandemic showed us, especially if companies don’t support or encourage employees to take time off or provide enough vacation days. 

Diving deeper into the new phenomenon, the Harris Poll’s Out of Office Culture Report surveyed 1,270 employed Americans and found that: 

• 37% of millennial workers took time off without telling their supervisors or managers

• Yet, 78% of U.S. workers don’t take all their PTO days, with that number being most among Millennial and Gen Z workers and millennials

So, if we have banked PTO days, why be sneaky about sipping a coconut on a beach? 

Erin McGoff, a career educator known for giving advice on social media, says one reason Millennials and Gen Z quietly vacation is our age, which comes with specific life events happening at this time.

Bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings, baby showers (the list goes on) tend to be (fun but…) obligations we have to use our PTO for. So, aside from those social obligations, the extra experiences we want to have require this workaround. Sidenote: We’re working on saying “no” to things, but that’s a whole other issue 🙂 

Some other reasons why many are quiet vacationing instead of putting in for PTO?

• About half of the Harris Poll survey, including 61% of millennials and 58% of Gen Z, said they’re nervous about asking for time off 

• Employees feel pressure to respond to requests, especially so they don’t appear lazy to their managers and colleagues

• Workers have the guilt of leaving their coworkers to pick up the slack while they’re out

Our take? If you’re getting your work done without any issues, we don’t see a problem with answering an email on the beach occasionally. However, if you aren’t available to respond to work needs when you’re supposed to, you should probably say no to that three-day weekend in Cabo or officially take the time off. 

If you were to quiet vacation, here’s how we suggest keeping things actually on the DL:

1. Don’t yap about your sneaky vacation plans to the entire office. 

2. Consider not posting that photo of you in Mykonos until maybe you’re back?

3. And the most important IOHO? If you have enough PTO, take your days so you don’t have to respond to Slack while whale watching. 

Things To Send in the Group Chat

…while you plan your next vacation after reading this.

The side part is back, baby! Or if you’re Gabi, it never even left. Gen Z is now giving the nod of approval to the millennial hairstyle when we’ve been saying this the entire time.

Can we go back to simpler times when we were all just making dirt soup in the backyard with the neighbor kids? Queen_ayoke on Instagram knows exactly what we’re talking about.

With summer right around the corner, we’re gearing up to make a lot of fun cocktails to beat the heat, starting with this Charred Strawberry Margarita by @BrittsBevs on Instagram. 

Thanks so much for hanging with us today! We’ll catch ya next week, love you, mean it. 

— Rod and Gabi