'I'm basically rewarding myself': Korean workers embrace 'quiet vacationing'

Seoul-based employees work remotely at a workcation area in Jeju. [JOONGANG ILBO]

 
First, there was “quiet quitting” — the practice of doing the bare minimum at work. Then, there was “quiet firing” — demoting or transferring employees rather than dismissing them. Now, Korean companies are experiencing the phenomenon of “quiet vacationing,” or taking time off while claiming to be "working" remotely. 
 
The idea of a “workcation,” wherein employees work remotely from an exotic destination without notifying their boss, is nothing new. But quiet vacationing adds an element of slacking: The vacationer does little to no work during the day, whether at home or overseas.
 
An information technology (IT) worker, surnamed Jo, went on a five-day holiday to Jeju from Wednesday, which was a national holiday, to Sunday, in May. Jo did not take any days off, however: He used a Friday-off perk that his employer provides every month and opted to “work from home” on Thursday — in Jeju.
 
“I didn’t want to be seen as that guy who goes on a five-day long holiday,” Jo told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily.
 
Other quiet vacationers take a subtler tact. 
 
Lee, a 35-year-old remote worker in the IT sector, often reads books and watches YouTube while “working from home” if her workload allows. She doesn't travel, ensuring that she's seen in her home while on work calls, but spends other portions of her workday cooking or working out.
 
“I work around the clock and over my work hours when I’m busy, so I’m basically rewarding myself with some treats when I’m less busy,” Lee said.
 
An April 2023 survey from global market research firm The Harris Poll showed that 37 percent of millennial workers, born in the early 1980s to early 1990s, have “taken time off” without notifying their manager.
 
Thirty-eight percent of the millennials surveyed also admitted to having “moved their mouse” to maintain online status in their employer's messaging system. Notably, millennial workers showed a higher preference for both behaviors than Gen Z workers born after the mid-'90s.
 
“While Gen Z-ers tend to be more vocal about workplaces that shame people for wanting to ask off work, millennials would rather take matters into their own hands, but under the radar,” said Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at The Harris Poll, in a news release.
 
Quiet vacationing is also considered a way to “not waste” paid time off, especially for those whose holidays are often interrupted by work-related calls. In fact, 56 percent of American workers have “taken work-related calls or meetings during their time off” according to The Harris Poll, and 60 percent “struggle to fully disconnect” during such periods. 
 
Both factors result in a desire not to burn vacation days on periods when work will be required.
 
“In an environment where taking days off is looked down upon, you are bound to be [made] anxious by the fact that your boss or the company might reject your holidays,” said Kim Han-sol at Human Solution Group. “There also is a strong compulsion to prove that you are working hard in such environments.
 
But quiet vacations can be a nightmare from the company’s perspective — especially in Korea.
 
“One rotten apple in a box can make all other apples rot together,” Kim said. “One worker’s delinquency of duties can affect others in the workplace. It can also result in workers feeling unfair, thinking ‘Why am I working diligently like an idiot?’”
 
It's a bigger problem in Korean workplaces than it is in the United States due to differences in the two nations' labor practices, according to No Se-ri, a research fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Division of the Korea Labor Institute.
 
“Workplaces in the United States have the tendency to reflect a worker’s pay or treatment based on performance evaluations, and the labor market is much more flexible,” No told the JoongAng Ilbo. “Even if they end up spending a quiet vacation on Mondays and Tuesdays, they are incentivized to work harder on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to make up for it — or else they expect to get sacked.”
 
“But Korean companies generally don’t numerically compute each employee’s outcome and even if they do, a poor result doesn’t directly result in them getting removed from office, so quiet vacationing results in a severe loss to the company if it spreads.”
 
Monitoring the movement of workers, however, is not the solution.
 
“If companies end up monitoring off-site work times and locations, a number of people will end up leaving the company, citing privacy issues,” Professor Kim Jung-in from University of Suwon told the JongAng Ilbo. “Google, too, has had a significant increase in people wanting to move after they changed back to working in offices.”
 
Clear guidelines and objectives, such as a short meeting every day, can help.
 
“It’s good to share with the entire team, and not just your boss, what you will be doing in the day,” Kim said. “Such talks can give healthy peer pressure.”
 
“The leader should make judgments on whether the workload is adequate so productivity doesn’t result in downward leveling.” 

BY PARK HAE-LEE, LEE SU-JEONG [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]