“Quiet vacationing” may be making headlines, but comprehensive research from Perceptyx, a global leader in employee listening and actioning for a better workplace, reveals that it’s just one outcome of a broader problem: the crumbling divide between work and vacation.
Perceptyx surveyed almost 3,000 employees to find that seven in 10 people work, to some degree, during their vacations. These workers are more than twice as likely than their peers to have also taken secret vacation days, suggesting that quiet vacations may be an effort by overworked employees to regain some work-life balance.
The company identified three distinct groups of employees.
- Planned workationers (29%) plan to work while on vacation. They take their devices with them and keep their notifications switched on. People leaders are nearly twice as likely as individual contributors to say they plan to work while on PTO.
- Unplanned workationers (43%) intend to switch off but end up getting sucked into work regardless. They leave devices behind, switch off notifications, but still respond to messages from their manager and coworkers and check in regularly, most likely from their personal devices. Senior managers are the most likely job levels to fall into this category. This group is also disproportionately represented by younger workers who are twice as likely to say a boss has made them feel guilty for taking time off. Unplanned vacationers are also the group most likely to take vacation without telling their boss.
- True vacationers (28%) successfully disconnects. They leave all their devices behind, switch off notifications, and don’t respond to messages. Older employees and those without direct people management responsibilities are the most likely to be in this category. Employees in Gen X or older have the support from their peers to take a true vacation, as they are half as likely as their younger counterparts to say team members have made them feel guilty for taking time off.
Most (70%) agree that people are much better workers when they take vacation time. Despite that, they aren’t doing it themselves and it’s having serious consequences. Workationers—both planned and unplanned—are more likely to have lower well-being and show more signs of burnout than their true vacationer peers. But it’s unplanned workationers that are the worst off. They are nearly twice as likely as planned workationers and true vacationers to say that stress from work has caused them to regularly behave poorly with friends and family or engage in unhealthy coping behaviors, such as overeating or substance use. Unplanned workationing also takes a toll on the health of the workers, where they are nearly twice as likely as true vacationers to have taken more than week of sick days each year.
“The biggest problem for employers, however, is that their most engaged employees are more likely to work on vacation,” says Emily Killham, senior director and head of workforce transformation at Perceptyx. “That means you’re burning out your most valuable employees. They may be engaged for now, but that won’t last if their well-being is being gradually eroded.”
The study sheds light on the drivers of quiet vacationing.
- The top driver of quiet vacationing is manager behavior. Planned workationers (65%) are almost twice as likely as true vacationers (37%) to say their manager checks email or messages from vacation. Managers’ actions speak louder than words: when employees are encouraged to disconnect, they are 20% more likely to do so. But, when it’s both encouraged and modeled by managers, they are 71% more likely to fully switch off.
- Workationers are nearly twice as likely than true vacationers to feel nervous asking for time off because work is so busy, suggesting that organizations need to not just encourage time off, but truly make it possible for employees to disconnect periodically.
- Unlimited PTO policies are sometimes blamed for employees taking less vacation. But Perceptyx data indicates that while people may take more vacation days when their time is unlimited, twice as many are working while they are out.
“The real difference-maker here is manager behavior,” says Killham. “Our prior research has shown that managers are struggling to reconcile the pressures from above and below. And this new study shows managers are also the group most likely to plan to work while on vacation. That’s why it’s so critical that managers get the support, tools, and training to ensure balance for themselves. Otherwise, the fallout will trickle through the rest of the organization.”
