Quiet vacations — or taking time off or working from around the world without telling your boss — are growing in popularity.
Millennials, in particular, seem to be particularly fond of the trend. A recent Harris Poll found that nearly four in 10 millennial respondents admitted to taking time off without informing their superiors.
So what’s a boss to do if they want to stop employees from sneaking out of the office behind their backs?
David Barkoe, CEO and founder of Florida-based PR firm Carve Communications, said it all comes down to creating a culture of trust with your employees.
“Go live your life, but get the job done,” Barkoe told Business Insider as he described his approach. “I’m going to trust you from the first minute, from the moment I hire you, to just get the job done, however you feel best doing it.”
In practice, that culture takes many forms. Sometimes, it’s an employee who works a few hours early in the morning so they can sign in early to meet their child’s swim. Other times, it’s an employee who takes a three-week trip to Europe where the first week is PTO, and the other two, they just work from a different time zone.
Barkoe said the open and flexible culture, which is actively encouraged and practiced by senior management, makes it so employees don’t feel like they have to sneak away just to take a break.
“It’s absolutely culture-driven,” he said.
Barkoe believes one reason people are taking quiet vacations is because they feel their employer isn’t giving them trust and respect, so they just take the vacations they want anyway.
As for bosses who worry that such a flexible culture will result in less work, Barkoe has found the opposite to be true. When Carve left for good in 2020, Barkoe said he quickly realized they weren’t going back to the office.
“It just worked. People were more motivated,” he said.
Although it might be different at a company with thousands of employees, Barkoe said, “As a small organization, if you’re not doing your job, it’s very hard to hide.” He added that if someone takes advantage, then they’re probably not the right person for your team, regardless.
Ashton Mathai, associate director of content at Barkoe’s firm, told BI that she takes full advantage of Carve’s unlimited PTO policy and work-from-anywhere culture.
A recent survey found that millennials were more likely than other generations to take time off without telling their bosses. Mariya Borisova/Getty Images
Last year, Mathai traveled to Europe for two months. She took 10 days of PTO to start the trip and then spent the rest of the time working from places like Scotland, Amsterdam, Portugal and Italy. Because she was in a different time zone, she often worked from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM local time and spent the morning doing a tour or going to the beach.
“I would live my life in the morning and then in the afternoon, at night I would do my work,” she said.
Mathai said that before she left, her bosses told her they had full confidence in her that she would complete her work while she was gone.
“It wasn’t a threat. It was really trust,” she said. “So I went out there knowing I want to make them proud. I want to make myself proud and do my job.”
In addition to working outside, she said she also takes a lot of full-fledged PTO. Earlier this year, she traveled to India for two weeks with her family and did not work.
“There’s a lot of encouragement from the leadership, from David himself, to take time off,” Mathai said of Barkoe.
Barkoe said many companies have unlimited PTO in theory, but there’s a difference between saying it and doing it. He tries to actively encourage and challenge people, in a good way, when they benefit from Carve’s flexible culture.
“You just have to have the mentality and the will to say that personal life is part of the work culture,” he said. “Not the other way around, where work culture is part of personal life.”