Noisy vacations should be the next trend in the workplace

Last year saw the rise of “quiet vacation” A trend that saw more and more employees taking time off work without informing their managers or logging the days in their HR platform. While quiet holidays are likely to continue to prevail US work culturea human resources manager believes she has a solution.

Jennifer Kraszewski, CHRO at HR software solutions company Paycom, advises employers to embrace “noisy vacation,” a term she coined that focuses on the idea that employees feel encouraged to plan, discuss and commit to their vacation be happy vacation days. Employees should be proud that they are taking time off to recharge, Kraszewski emphasizes.

“Speaking vacation means you can take a vacation without feeling guilty,” she says. “PTO is a benefit that companies offer their employees. Therefore, it is important that employees use this PTO to its fullest extent, and managers should encourage employees to do just that.”

Read more: Why employers should add SAFE leave to their PTO options

According to Paycom, 78% of American workers are not using the maximum amount of PTO available, and 75% wish they could take available days off. It’s clear there’s a vacation problem in the U.S., and while employers may attribute this to understaffing or employees feeling like they have too much work to do, Kraszewski believes it’s time for leaders to stop making excuses to find.

“People are hesitant to take their allotted vacation because they’re worried about coverage of the team or their next promotion,” she says. “But you are more productive and engaged when you can take time off from work.”

For Kraszewski, it’s obvious that the reluctance to completely withdraw from work has evolved into a trend for quiet vacations. Employees don’t want to let their team down or show their managers that they’re committed – either way, they can’t fully concentrate on themselves or their work.

Read more: Do your unlimited PTO policies actually work?

“People want to appear as if they are working when they are actually not working or are doing a little work on vacation,” says Kraszewski. “They want their leaders to feel like they’re working really hard, which leads to more burnout.”

Kraszewski suggests that employers ask company leaders to change their approach to vacation. Instead of viewing PTO requests as a potential burden on the team or evidence of laziness, managers should view them as something positive for the entire team, explains Kraszewski.

Read more: It’s the holiday season – here’s how to handle mass PTO requests

One key action managers can take to encourage a noisy vacation culture is to encourage employees to plan their long-term vacations in advance. This helps managers figure out how to complete necessary tasks while the employee is away and also gives employees something to look forward to. In the meantime, managers can have positive conversations about upcoming PTO as well as more logistical conversations about workload and day-to-day responsibilities: They can ask employees what they’d like to do in their free time and check what work needs to be covered while they’re out.

Combined with the right HR technology, it has become more efficient to track when people are using PTO and what coverage is needed. The last thing managers should do is get caught up in trying to figure out who’s out when. This time can be better spent talking to employees and preparing for absences that might accompany important appointments or meetings.

“If you allow your employees to use the PTO available to them, they will drive away, charge up, come back and have plenty of fuel in the tank to tackle the next challenge on the horizon,” she says. “I know that some of my best ideas and thoughts came when I was unplugged and away from the office.”