Mumbai-based Shreya Mohan* insists she’s not on holiday, but from the looks of it—a breeze flowing through her hair as she hurriedly sets down the tender coconut she’s sipping from and feeds in her credentials to join a virtual meeting—you’d think otherwise. The rustling of the trees from her verandah beckons temptingly, but exploring the backwaters will have to wait.
Spending a leisurely weekend in Goa with friends may not sound radical, but the 32-year-old’s decision to work remotely while keeping her vacation secret from her colleagues at a leading food delivery company is. “Having newly joined the team is what drove me to keep it a secret. I wasn’t sure how my boss or my colleagues would respond and how acceptable it would have been in this workplace,” she confides. As voices drone in the backdrop, debating the merits of sending out customer gift boxes for a Diwali campaign, her brain zones out to take in the glorious sight of the setting sun.
She isn’t alone in partaking in this cloak-and-dagger business of maintaining secrecy around her vacation; there are legions of workers who are taking the joy of remote work to its sly extremes. “Even a small vacation or change of scenery can help—I only realised this when I returned from the holiday and didn’t feel burnt out,” she says.
Mohan’s story is one of many, as a new trend catches the fancy of fatigued employees: quiet vacations, or the art of taking holidays without intimating one’s colleagues while keeping up the appearance of working remotely, is becoming a viable way to deal with increasing workplace pressure. “Stepping away from work, even discreetly, can help protect the nervous system, reduce stress and improve overall well-being,” intones Mehek Rohira, a Mumbai-based psychologist. In her opinion, stealth-vacations give employees a much-needed change of environment and mental reset without the pressure of justifying their time off.
Most Indian companies offer about 20 odd days of paid leave a year, leaving employees to be judicious about their time off. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Resume Builder, hush-hush vacations are being favoured by employees even when they have paid time off (PTO) left. Over 33 per cent of the respondents reported being too anxious to ask for time away from work, 30 per cent believed it would make them look less hard-working, and 26 per cent had their request met with disapproval. Mohan echoes the sentiment, having often been berated for a single day of sick leave. The reproach towards employees taking justified time off is often funnelled into non-verbal forms of reproval as well. “I was also treated coldly after I returned from a COVID-induced leave,” she recalls.
Beyond being made to feel guilty for taking time off, a constantly plugged-in work culture is also driving burnt-out employees to keep their vacations secret. “We live in a world where being always available has become the norm, which can take a real toll on mental health. Employees often feel pressure to check emails late at night, respond to messages instantly or be reachable even on vacation,” says Rohira. Deprived of the ability to enjoy their vacations and approved time away from work, overburdened employees are desperately seeking quiet vacations to recharge their batteries.
These vacations aren’t brag-worthy experiences to share on Instagram; photos are reserved for the #latergram. Because quiet vacations aren’t without their pitfalls—one slip-up on social media or an Instagram story shared with the wrong circle of friends, and you could run the risk of being caught.
The stress of maintaining secrecy can often eclipse the intended purpose of the holiday. Nivedita Kapoor*, 31, manager of learning and development at a leading management consulting group in Delhi, agrees. “While the idea of taking quiet time off can sound appealing, ‘clean’ vacations help me rejuvenate the most,” she shares. In her experience, switching gears mentally between travel, family and work priorities perversely makes the experience more stressful. “I like to have control over my time on vacations so I can maintain spontaneity and do things on a whim—quiet vacations or partially working holidays don’t allow this flexibility,” she says.
So, if quiet vacations won’t work, what will? Subbalakshmi K believes a larger mindset shift is needed. As the chief of staff at Talview, a fast-paced software company in Bengaluru, she has observed that reasonably happy employees are usually the ones who are most productive. “It is important to be realistic about people's personal lives and the time they require for themselves, their family and their interests. By holding people accountable for their outcomes, rather than just the hours they clock in, any organisation will be in a good space,” she says.
The notion is seconded by Mohammed Jamal, 33, who is the associate director of professional services at HirePro, a Bengaluru-based start-up. As a leader, he has found it crucial to read the body language of employees during their daily presence in the office to understand when they are low so he can encourage them to take time off. “As a manager, it is important to value outcome rather than solely relying on an employee’s availability in the office,” he adds.
Even as members of upper management engage in some much-needed introspection over the rationale behind employees opting for quiet vacations, Gen Z is faced with their own set of questions as they step into leadership roles. Just ask Rukhsar Kazi, a 27-year-old entrepreneur from Mumbai, who faced her fair share of reverse ageism when she launched her own digital marketing agency, Our Quotient. “In the beginning, I felt too young to command a team,” she concedes. When she spotted an employee taking a stealthy vacation, she recalled being confronted by a string of doubts. “If I allow it this time, will it become a regular occurrence?” she wondered.
However, with time, she has grown to view time off work as a necessary asset to the agency. “Initially, I would be concerned with how work would be impacted and how an employee’s unavailability might inconvenience clients. But I have grown to realise that if my team isn’t getting time to reset, I’m setting the company up for failure, especially in a service-driven business where people are the product,” she says. Now, she chooses to clearly communicate the number of paid leaves each team member is entitled to without questioning why they are taking it. “We treat this time off as a right, not a favour,” she declares.
Where quiet quitting saw employees doing the bare minimum and refusing to go above and beyond, quiet vacations appear to be a natural evolution of the same mindset as overworked employees strive desperately to seek autonomy over their time. However, Jamal has cause to believe that change can be ushered in by aiming for work-life integration rather than attempting to strike an ever-elusive work-life balance.
Instead of viewing work and life as individual entities, this approach attempts to blend the two—like folding laundry while attending work calls or catching up on emails while waiting at a doctor’s clinic. Jamal concludes, “Trying to achieve a balance between work and life is a tricky act of juggling. There will be days where one demands more from you than the other. However, if you look at integrating the two, you can create a synergy where they feed off each other and help you grow as a person.”
*Some names have been changed to protect the individuals’ identity
