We all have at some point of life or other planned a “fake sick leave.” Someone with high courage might have taken one as well. Have you ever not taken leave but been on one? It might sound aberrant, but not in today’s workplace. On a Monday morning, the Slack status is green, emails are being answered, meetings are still being attended, deadlines are met, but the person is on leave. Yes, this is what is happening in today’s workplaces, and it is known as “quiet vacationing.”What was our idea of leave? To be truly on leave. Well, the traditional definition of vacation is becoming obsolete. Unlike a traditional vacation, where employees fully disconnect, quiet vacationing sits in a grey zone. Workers technically take time off, but never fully step away. They may log in briefly in the morning, respond to a few urgent messages, attend a meeting or two, and then spend the rest of the day away from work in practice, while still appearing available. No “out of office” message or formal disconnect, just a carefully maintained illusion of presence.According to a Harris Poll survey conducted in March 2024, cited by Bloomberg (March 21, 2024), this growing behaviour is closely linked to rising workload pressures and a widespread apprehension among employees that taking a fully disconnected break will only lead to an overwhelming backlog of work upon return.
A response shaped by burnout and pressure
We can say it is a trend by seeing the results on the surface, but digging deeper reveals it is burnout. Across industries, employees are increasingly submitting to a feeling of being overworked and under constant pressure to stay responsive. In such an environment, even taking a proper vacation can feel like a risk. The idea of returning to hundreds of unread emails or unresolved tasks often outweighs the relief of stepping away.As a result, some employees adopt a middle path, staying lightly connected while trying to reclaim parts of their day for rest or personal time.Workplace cuture says a lot. Even when you have designated leaves on Darwinbox, employees feel they can perceive an unspoken expectation to remain reachable. In some organisations, being “always on” is associated with being dependable or committed. This perception, whether explicit or not, discourages full disengagement.
Remote work and the visibility gap
The rise of remote and hybrid work has made quiet vacationing easier to practis, and harder to detect. When employees are no longer reporting in cubicles and physically present in offices, managers heavily rely on digital systems. Green status indicators, timely replies, and meeting attendance become signs for real visibility.This creates a system where presence is measured in responsiveness rather than actual availability. As long as tasks are completed and messages are acknowledged, reduced engagement can go unnoticed.In this environment, employees can step back without formally stepping out. The boundaries between working and resting become increasingly blurred.
The risks beneath the surface
While quiet vacationing may appear to offer a flexible workaround, it carries hidden costs. Employees who remain partially connected during time off rarely achieve full psychological detachment from work. Even brief email checks or meeting attendance can prevent the mental reset that vacations are meant to provide. Over time, this can undermine the very purpose of taking leave, rest, and recovery.There are also organisational risks. If such behaviour is discovered, it can damage trust within teams, particularly if colleagues are unknowingly covering workloads or making assumptions about someone’s availability. What begins as an individual coping strategy can create friction at a collective level.
The larger question for workplaces
Quiet vacationing ultimately raises a broader question about modern work culture: why do employees feel the need to disguise rest?Experts argue that the solution lies not in monitoring employee behaviour more closely, but in reshaping workplace expectations. Organisations that actively encourage fully disconnected leave, ensure proper workload distribution, and set clear boundaries around availability are less likely to see such informal coping mechanisms emerge.For employees, the long-term answer is simpler but harder to achieve, working in environments where taking time off does not require negotiation, justification, or partial participation. Because when rest has to be performed quietly, it is no longer rest in the true sense.And when a vacation requires staying half on duty, the problem is not the employee stepping away, it is the system that makes stepping away feel impossible.