Have you heard about “quiet vacationing”? It’s just a new version of what was previously referred to as “workcations” or “bleisure” trips, but with “quiet vacationing”, employees are not telling their employers that they are going on vacation and doing bare minimum in productivity. First of all, enough with these silly buzzwords and word mashups…. Bleisure, that’s too much.
We talked about “workcations” back in 2022 when it started to be a post-pandemic situation for employers and employees and can be referenced to here. Ever since there have been business trips, people have been incorporating personal time into them. That’s not the issue. And if managed appropriately, people taking trips while working shouldn’t be a huge issue either, but there are things both employees and small businesses need to take into consideration.
Here are 5 tips for small businesses to manage quiet vacationing:
For employees that are remote workers or have flexibility in their work schedules, being able to work wherever they want can be very appealing and a great retention tool for small companies. When it comes to “workcations”, remote employees can travel, explore new areas or do whatever it is that fulfills them. This should be a non-issue if they are able to maintain their level of productivity, continue to meet the job requirements and are not impeding co-workers or negatively impacting the company.
People really do need time off from work to disconnect and recharge, so there needs to be encouragement from the company for employees to use their paid time off and fully disconnect for their overall wellness, rather than spend their time on “quiet vacationing” and “workcations” where there is no real separation from their work.
The other point of "quiet vacationing" from the company side is if people are doing that throughout the year and not using their company provided paid time off (PTO), depending on how the policy is written or what the state requirements are for PTO payout, that could become an issue for your small business in paying out more PTO that budgeted.
Having a culture of open and ongoing communication that supports employee feedback will help employees feel like they can tell their managers when they are taking vacations or time away so that they don’t feel like they have to take “quiet vacations”. This will also help reinforce performance standards and expectations if someone is travelling and working at the same time.
Revisit and possibly revise time off policies and practices to ensure that they meet the needs of the current workforce and align with the company culture. Do the policies make sense? Are people using the PTO or is there the need to take “quiet vacations” because they don’t feel supported in time off?
I would like to think that employees are comfortable telling their managers or employers that they are traveling but still working and that the "quiet" part of this goes away, because that's the way it should be. Even though a lot of progress has been made regarding workplace flexibility and transparency over the past few years, I think there is still a long way to go. Let’s talk about it
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