'The story is not so much about deceptive employees, it's about 'Why are we asking people to do the impossible?''
One in eight corporate workers plan to “quiet vacation” this summer, even those with paid time off (PTO) benefits, according to a ResumeBuilder survey.
That means they’re taking vacation time without informing their employer.
And while it might be tempting for HR professionals to ignore the latest employment trend, or even discipline for it, experts say employers should be taking the issue seriously, as quiet vacationing is a signifier of big problems in the organization.
Jean-Nicolas Reyt, associate professor of organizational behaviour at McGill University in Montreal, points out that rather than employees trying to pull one over on their employers, quiet vacationing is an attempt to balance heavier workloads with their personal lives.
“The story is not so much about deceptive employees, it's more about ‘Why are we asking people to do the impossible?’” says Reyt.
“How can you ask people to take care of kids who are at home and don't have school, and at the same time, both parents are working full time? That makes no sense.”
Impression management
Quiet vacationing is a sign of a lack of trust on both sides of the employment relationship, says Reyt.
The result is what he calls “impression management”, where employees are working to maintain a façade of busyness, because of pressure to meet demanding expectations of productivity.
“There's a lot of mistrust between employers and employees, and this is why there is so much impression management,” Reyt says. “The employer doesn't believe that the employee is actually working, and the employee doesn't believe that the employer will have their back, and so they just hide and lie and deceive and all that stuff.”
Common “tactics” used by employees to make it appear they are working when they are in fact quiet vacationing include answering emails, attending virtual meetings, and using virtual backgrounds in meetings to conceal their location.
Likening such a relationship to that of a teenager and a parent, Reyt goes on to explain that an employee who doesn’t trust that their employer will grant them time off without consequences will find ways to make it work.
“Then you have a big problem, which is that you don't know how to measure productivity, and you're looking at indicators that are the easiest for the employees to just to fake,” he says, admitting that gauging productivity through performance metrics rather than attendance metrics may be more difficult, but is a more beneficial style of management for both the employee and the organization.
“I think good managers, they're able to look at the performance, and then they're able to meet with you, and they're able to, without judgment, try to understand ‘How can we help you reach this level we expect for this position?’” says Reyt.
“The goal is really not to try to trick one another into having some sort of an impression. The goal would be ‘We're aligned in this, we want you to reach this goal. How can we help you do that?’”
What tacit signals are being sent about PTO?
The ResumeBuilder survey of 1,050 corporate workers found that 2 in 5 employees who have PTO benefits worry that requesting days off will affect their job security, and that anxiety is the top reason for workers not using their paid vacation days.
Employers need to go beyond making superficial statements about using PTO and implementing policies that aren’t practiced, says Karen MacMillan, assistant professor of organizational behaviour at Ivey Business School in London, Ont.
Regardless of an organization’s official stance on PTO, there are tacit understandings that employees are aware of that they will tend to operate under, she says.
“Organizations build these cultures that are often contrary to what the official policies are. Every person who joins an organization starts looking for those signals right away,” MacMillan says.
“Companies send lots of signals. Whether or not they intend to is a different story, but they send lots of signals about what's valued.”
An organization may offer three weeks of PTO, or even unlimited vacation time, but when an employee uses that time, the reception or consequence is what will dictate future decisions, she explains: “It'll be right there in black-and-white in the employee handbook, and absolutely, if you take that vacation, that's fine. But what they're not always clear about is what happens if you take those three weeks … it's these tacit signals that tell people whether they should vacation or not.”
Encourage ‘loud vacationing’ to cut down on quiet vacationing
To counter this tacit messaging and unspoken culture around not taking time off, MacMillan recommends a practice of “loud vacationing,” meaning that employees, including managers and top-level executives, even CEOs, are open and honest about taking time off, and transparent about not being available, thereby resetting the culture as hopefully employees follow suit.
Not only is this good for employee mental health, she says, but it’s just good management practice.
“I want to know when you're stepping away so that I can make sure that there's somebody covering for you, or so that I don't count on you that particular date,” MacMillan says. “It's much easier for me to manage an employee who's loud about their vacation-taking than somebody who's quiet about it.”
Also, it doesn’t feel good to need to sneak away for a day off, she points out: “It doesn't contribute to a sense of candour in the organization, where we're our authentic self with each other. Instead, it’s me trying to meet your needs while I meet my own in a secret way.”
Quiet vacationing is also an indication of the future of work in Canada, Reyt says, as the four-day work week is adopted by more organizations, and more families require more time to care for personal needs with both caregivers working.
“It's unbelievable how much more productive people are, year after year after year, but they're not paid more, and their hours are stuck,” Reyt says.
“It's exactly the same effect as if you have a contractor and you ask them every year to do a bit more and a bit more, but you never pay them more, you never give them an extra dollar. You're not going to get great service. At the end of the day, they're going to need to make a living, and so probably they'll try to find a quick way to do your contract, and then they'll move on to a more lucrative one.”
Recommendations for HR around quiet vacationing
In addition to encouraging “loud vacationing,” MacMillan recommends getting feedback from employees about how they feel about requesting PTO and why they aren’t requesting it.
“[It’s about] making sure that there's not pushback, that ‘I took my I took my two weeks, but when I came back, there was so much work waiting for me it's going to take me six months to catch up.’”
Leaders “all the way up the ladder” can also be coached on how to be good role models around taking time off, she adds. This includes following through when going off-grid.
“What can we do as HR people to support those who are off? Maybe we need to backfill. Maybe we need to look at the processes so that I can take that time off and not be underwater for a long time afterwards,” she says. “Look for the reasons why people aren't doing it, and then attack those reasons. People do what they get rewarded for, and they don't do what they're punished for. So figure out what rewards and punishments are in place, and adjust them as needed.”
