{"id":4262,"date":"2025-08-18T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/success-stories\/atostogu-kultura-kai-poilsis-tampa-darbu-o-darbas-poilsiu\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:04:56","slug":"atostogu-kultura-kai-poilsis-tampa-darbu-o-darbas-poilsiu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/insights\/atostogu-kultura-kai-poilsis-tampa-darbu-o-darbas-poilsiu\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacation Culture: When Rest Becomes Work, and Work Becomes Rest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vacations should be a time for rest, but more and more people aren\u2019t using them as they should. Some quietly rest during working hours while pretending to work; others, even when officially on vacation, remain engaged in their job. According to Evelina Laty\u0161ovi\u010d, Head of Business Operations at the global HR solutions company Manpower, these two opposite practices stem from the same issue \u2013 a work culture in which submitting a vacation request is seen as a sign of insufficient commitment. How does such an environment affect employees, and what can organizations do to ensure that vacations don\u2019t exhaust staff or harm company operations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally, 46% of employees say their workload interferes with work-life balance, and as many as 56% of Gen Z report experiencing daily work stress, according to the latest ManpowerGroup survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These results indicate that many workers struggle to manage their time and energy between work and personal life. One consequence is a complicated relationship with rest: even when they have the opportunity to take time off, people often don\u2019t make full use of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe consequences of a complicated relationship with rest \u2013 rest is still sometimes viewed negatively \u2013 are that people either hide the fact they are resting or cannot disconnect even during vacation. Such extremes indicate a lack of mutual trust and cultural maturity within the organization, preventing a healthy work-rest balance. This environment encourages both secret withdrawal from work and secret engagement with it \u2013 two opposite reactions to the same systemic problem,\u201d comments Laty\u0161ovi\u010d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quiet Vacationing \u2013 When Rest Becomes a Secret<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quiet vacationing refers to employees who don\u2019t officially take vacation days but stop working and pretend otherwise \u2013 creating the impression they are fulfilling tasks. This often happens in remote work settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent global research shows that 1 in 4 employees has engaged in quiet vacationing at least once. This might mean mowing the lawn, relaxing at the beach, or watching a series while maintaining an \u201cactive\u201d status on work platforms, automating email sending, or even moving the mouse to appear busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis behavior is often driven not by bad intentions but by fatigue or trying to adapt to an environment where vacations are formally allowed but practically frowned upon. While dishonesty \u2013 even under pressure \u2013 is not the right choice, it often signals a lack of trust and open dialogue about the importance of rest. Employees may fear being perceived as less engaged or responsible simply because they choose to rest, which can lead to poor decisions,\u201d Laty\u0161ovi\u010d explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, she notes, sometimes quiet vacationing becomes intentional misconduct \u2013 when employees deliberately avoid work despite having the opportunity to take official leave:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome employees intentionally don\u2019t work but don\u2019t request vacation, preferring to save days for a future trip or for other unethical reasons. In such cases, work remains unfinished while hours are faked. This is more common when working from Lithuania, where simulating work is easier. Vacation days are often \u2018saved\u2019 for planned travel abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fake Vacations \u2013 When You\u2019re on Holiday but Still Working<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flip side is when an employee is officially on vacation but remains engaged with work \u2013 checking email, responding to messages, answering colleagues\u2019 questions, or even joining online meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Laty\u0161ovi\u010d, the reason for such fake vacations is often not a conscious choice but inner anxiety and informal pressure to always be \u201conline.\u201d If a manager or colleagues respond to messages or attend meetings during their own vacations, others feel social pressure, making it emotionally difficult to disconnect. Research confirms this: in Q2 2025, 4 in 10 employees felt constant pressure to be reachable even outside working hours (ManpowerGroup global survey).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlmost always, people return from such vacations more exhausted than before. They haven\u2019t disconnected and have carried guilt and internal conflict \u2013 torn between the duty to be available and the need to rest,\u201d says Laty\u0161ovi\u010d. In such cases, rest not only fails to restore energy but deepens burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequences for Employees and Organizations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth quiet vacationing and fake vacations have the same result \u2013 this kind of \u2018rest\u2019 doesn\u2019t allow employees to restore their inner resources,\u201d says Laty\u0161ovi\u010d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major issue arises when employees formally go on vacation but never fully detach \u2013 checking emails, responding to messages, or handling tasks because they know no one else will take over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse still is when they are forced to work intensely to finish tasks before leaving, only to return to a pile of new work. In this scenario, vacation becomes just a temporary pause, after which fatigue not only remains but worsens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe workload remains the employee\u2019s responsibility, so they feel obliged to keep at least minimal contact with colleagues even during vacation. This creates a vicious cycle: rest becomes a mere formal break, not a true recovery, and thus fails to prevent burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She adds that quiet vacationing is equally harmful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t solve the fatigue problem. On the contrary, it creates an inauthentic atmosphere where people simulate work to appear loyal. Over time, this undermines trust and fosters a culture where presence \u2013 not results \u2013 is valued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Solution \u2013 Vacation Seasons<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To eliminate quiet vacation culture, organizations must systematically review internal norms, says Laty\u0161ovi\u010d. Words from leadership aren\u2019t enough \u2013 employees need practical conditions to truly disconnect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More companies are introducing measures to normalize rest: planning collective vacations, setting up automatic email responders, or restricting access to internal systems during time off. Some have implemented \u201cvacation seasons\u201d \u2013 agreed-upon times when it\u2019s fully acceptable to use vacation days. Increasingly, all employees are given time off simultaneously, eliminating guilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laty\u0161ovi\u010d also notes that organizations should track whether employees actually use their right to rest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the clearest signals is the number of unused vacation days. If people accumulate days but don\u2019t use them, it may not be a matter of time or circumstances \u2013 it\u2019s a question of trust and culture,\u201d she stresses. This can be checked through regular employee surveys, assessing emotional well-being and stress at work, and through sincere, open communication between managers and teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vacations should be a time for rest, but more and more people aren\u2019t using them as they should. Some quietly rest during working hours while pretending to work; others, even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4263,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262\/revisions\/4263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}