Quiet Vacation

About

Quiet Vacation is a slang term used to describe when a remote worker chooses to go on a vacation while trying to continue doing their online work instead of putting in a request for time off. This trend, starting around mid-2024, grew in prominence on TikTok following news reports about it and is seen as the next step in Millennial and Gen Z work attitude in the same vein as the similar term "Quiet Quitting." Online, videos about tips on quiet vacationing and memes about being discovered by your boss while on a quiet vacation began to spread during the summer of 2024.

Origin

On May 23rd, 2024, Yahoo Finance^[1] released a report on Quiet Vacationing, stating that it is what newer work-from-home millennials are doing to achieve a better work-life balance in lieu of actually taking paid time off (PTO). This, a holdover of COVID-19 Pandemic policy on office jobs being able to work remotely, started several discussions on TikTok.

On May 23rd, TikToker managermethod^[2] uploaded a TikTok explaining what the trend is and what the implications of it are from an HR standpoint, earning over 3 million views in two months (shown below).

Spread

As the conversation surrounding quiet vacationing began to grow, other TikTokers began to make sketches and skits based on two different concepts of the quiet vacation. In the first variation of sketches, TikToker corporate.sween^[3] uploaded a TikTok in which a worker is caught by their boss at the airport while trying to take a quiet vacation, turning into a stand-off in which they were threatened with a drug test following their quiet vacation, earning over 46,000 likes in three weeks (shown below).

On July 8th, 2024, TikToker saraisthreads^[4] uploaded a TikTok in which they were an employee who was on a quiet vacation and told their manager while they were already in Miami that they were on a vacation while working, expressing their dissatisfaction with the working climate and challenging the rationale for why they were unable to work remotely from a hotel, earning over 540,000 likes in three weeks (shown below).

Search Interest

External References