Quiet vacationing is the new term that was heard in the northern hemisphere between July and August, it will surely reach the southern hemisphere this summer season.
What is Quiet vacationing?
Employees take vacations without notifying their employers and continue working online, but from a vacation destination. Specifically, in the United States, a Harris Poll survey reported that 48% of Americans carried out “quiet vacationing” in the week of July 4 (national day) in which, in the past, many took vacations.
With the new home office/hybridity modality widely adopted worldwide, employees find it increasingly easier to combine their professional responsibilities with their personal lives and leisure time. The priorities and purposes are already different.
When carrying out search processes, and regardless of the ages of the candidates, it is increasingly complex to attract talent to those organizations that promote presence 4 or 5 days a week. However, Amazon recently reported that its employees, globally, will have to return to the office in person five days a week, regardless of seniority. The explanation was that before the pandemic, work was only done remotely in response to specific incidents such as a child’s illness or another mishap that did not allow access to the offices.
Could it be that companies like Amazon feel that people don’t work when they are at home? Will it be the beginning of the end of work/life balance? Could it have something to do with the fact that Amazon is also carrying out massive layoffs?
The fundamental issue to keep in mind is that in any organization, when structural modifications are made that restrict benefits (acquired rights) or previously agreed commitments are broken by the employer, the first collaborators to leave are generally precisely those who would want them to leave. remain. They are generally the high potential ones, those who are in lines of succession, those who add value due to their high performance. Crazy, right?
Recently at Bäcker & Partners we carried out and then published a survey of +400 executives to find out what the ideal mix of in-person presence is. The majority of those who participated in the survey were CEOs and Directors. The results showed that these leaders prefer three-day in-person weeks and two days of home office, going to the office with purpose.
When I published these results on my Instagram profile, some people suggested looking at the “B side” of that benefit. They wrote to me to tell me that for four years they had been struggling, in their homes, due to the invasion of their home offices and that they did not have the infrastructure to withstand what, for others, was a benefit. They suggested that I survey the households, those who live with those who work remotely, to find out if they gained or lost quality of life.
What is the origin of quiet vacationing?
The new term of ““quiet vacationing” It comes hand in hand with another terminology that became very popular post-pandemic, “quiet quitting.” Quiet quitting is the term assigned to those who lower the blinds with the company, but do not retire. They are those who have broken the emotional commitment and would leave, without thinking, if a new opportunity appears. Furthermore, at work, they meet the minimum necessary just to stay and collect their salary at the end of the month.
He quiet vacationing seems an extension of this constant search for work-life balance, a phenomenon that reflects how people’s priorities have changed.
However, it also confronts us with uncomfortable questions about the limits of remote work and the real impact it has on both employees and those sharing their homes.
This summer, in the southern hemisphere, we are likely to see more of this trend. The truth is that, while some companies seek to regain control and return to presence, workers continue to look for ways to preserve their freedom and well-being. Will quiet vacationing be a temporary solution or another sign that work paradigms have changed forever?
Managing Partner of Backer & Partners, specialized in executive search for Senior Management and Culture and Leadership Consulting
Source: Ambito
