This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with an employee who has been on a “quiet vacation,” which refers to taking time off without using PTO. The interviewee requested anonymity to protect their employment. Business Insider has verified their identity, employment, and travel with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I consider myself to be a motivated person, but at my current job, I don’t have to work hard to get the tasks done.
I studied a social science at university and joined a San Francisco tech company around three years ago. I’m based in Europe and mostly work from home. Within a few months on the job, I noticed the company’s expectations were much lower than what I could perform at.
My team manages a database. It’s not rocket science and involves a lot of copying and pasting, so I have a lot of free time.
Three years into the job, I feel like I got sucked into a corporation that doesn’t care about its employees. They introduced an RTO policy last year. When I found out, I was furious. I often find ways to avoid coming in even though I’m supposed to.
I became a “quiet quitter,” doing the bare minimum to finish a task and push it off my desk.
I’ve also started “quiet vacationing,” which is when your employer is under the impression you’re working, but you’re secretly taking time off. It started with taking some time away here and there and culminated in a month-long trip to Italy, which I only used one week of PTO for.
I want to keep quiet vacationing in the future. Traditional expectations around working 9-to-5 are outdated, and it’s good to see employees taking back their time.
I play video games and do chores when I’m meant to be working from home
I typically work between one to three hours a day, depending on the amount of meetings I have.
Many of my colleagues fudge our tasks, choosing to do the smallest amount possible to get them done. The only exception for me is when something is important to my boss or their friends. Then I’ll do a better job.
During the day, I’ll do everything but my job. I’ll do chores or go to the grocery store, play video games, and call friends and family. If I meet a friend after work, I’ll leave early and check the company’s messaging platform on my way.
No one at the company has ever raised suspicion that I’m not doing enough work, and I usually get rave reviews in appraisals.
There are certain ways to attract positive attention from managers without doing much. I try to ask good questions in meetings to show I’m engaged and post often on our messaging platform. It can be as simple as flagging something or posting a gentle reminder, and people think you’re on your A-game. Reacting to messages with an emoji also shows you’re paying attention, even if you don’t care about it at all.
I was always an overachiever in school, so I feel bad about sitting around and doing nothing. Other people, like nurses and doctors, have heroic jobs that really matter. I’m putting random data into a random database.
I’ve applied for other jobs in the past, but I find the application process tedious and demotivating when it goes nowhere. I think I’d be happy in any office job, but preferably one with a better mission, like a nonprofit.
Although I’ve considered leaving my job, I’m in a golden cage. I can pay my bills and do minimal work, so there isn’t much motivation to move on beyond my own discontent.
I spent a month in Italy but only used a week of PTO
For the first year or so at my job, I was more honest about working during my hours than I am now, and I was pretty good about putting my PTO hours on my calendar.
Because I spend a lot of time doing nothing, I started quietly taking time off for travel without taking PTO over the past two years. It began with using work days to travel to the airport.
Over time, I got bolder, knowing I could get away with it. I went on a spa day with my partner, and last year, I took a trip, marking both the day I was leaving and returning as normal work days even though I was traveling.
It culminated in a trip to Italy earlier this year. I was gone for four weeks but only took one week of PTO. I’d log on in the morning, check my emails and messages, and plan my day around any meetings I had.
I’d go out for the day, eat amazing food, see incredible sights, and make sure I was back home in time to join any online meetings. I usually have a fake background in meetings, so my colleagues couldn’t see where I was.
I’m meant to be in the office once a week, but it’s not strictly enforced. If you say you have a doctor’s appointment and don’t come in, no one will give you a hard time, so it wasn’t an issue during the trip.
I used a mouse jiggler to make it seem like I was online on our internal communications platform. It’s a USB that you plug into your computer, and your mouse goes crazy. It’s a lifesaver.
When I was in a museum, I checked my messages on my phone every 30 minutes or so. Most of the time, there weren’t any to reply to.
I’d say I’ve probably taken around two months of secret time off. Whenever I was gone for the day, I’d just turn on my mouse jiggler.
The possibility of getting caught does live in the back of my mind, but I’d just be upfront with my boss and say “I do my job. What more do you want?”
I’m not sure if it would be a breach of contract, but even if it were and I was thrust into the job-searching world, it might be a good push from the universe to get me moving on to something else.
Rigid expectations around work are archaic
Being able to visit Italy without raising suspicion from anyone has emboldened me to take another quiet vacation in the future.
Companies don’t care about employees. Everywhere you look, in different sectors, people are getting laid off. You watch CEOs on Zoom calls fire a hundred employees in one go. It’s horrendous. These are human beings; they have families and rent to pay. It’s also hard to get a good salary, pay raises, and good retirement benefits these days.
I think it’s leading people to make decisions like quiet vacationing and quiet quitting. People are finally giving companies exactly what they give us — nothing.
I get a standard amount of PTO days for someone in a European country, and I do use up all my time off, but why not take more? I know I can get all my work done without sticking to the traditional 9-to-5 deal, so I like the idea of just going to the spa for a day and not telling my company.
This idea of having a set rigid work schedule is archaic. I could do my job 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world. Why are we having regulations about the hours that I’m online or where I’m working from?
It feels good to see quiet vacationing trending online, with others taking back their time. The world can’t function if no one has a job, but your job doesn’t need to be your entire life.
