The rise of 'hush trips'.

"I'm actually at the beach right now and my manager has no idea."

A few years ago, this statement would've been scandalous. And for many people, pretty much impossible because the option to work remotely was only afforded to a lucky few. 

But on the back of the pandemic, more workplaces moved to a hybrid model meaning staff could work from pretty much anywhere... and employees are using it to their advantage. 

Enter: the rise of the "hush trip". 

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It's when employees are working from holiday locations without telling their workplaces. Their employers assume that they're just working from home, which they technically are. It's just that "home" can sometimes temporarily be classified as a day spa. 

A US survey earlier this year found around 44 per cent of Gen Z workers admitted to taking a hush trip, with most of them admitting to giving their workplace the impression they were working normal hours and using a virtual background in meetings to trick their employer. 

You might be thinking... what's the difference between working from home versus working from another location? Does it really matter?  

But if I think about someone telling their boss they're going on holiday but planning to work their normal shift, I automatically assume the boss would be wondering 'will they really be working?' 

At least that's the question I have embedded in my brain every time I work from a different location. 

I have a workplace that is very open to employees working remotely, as long as they get the job done. But when I once worked from my parents' holiday house - despite my manager knowing it was happening - I was incessantly messaging, even during my lunch break, to prove I was pulling my weight. 

However, not everyone shares the same stress as me.

Clare* says that her workplace allows her to work from home three days a week and she regularly goes on long weekends away to holiday locations. 

She also said that she never tells her employer that she's working from a location and never will. 

"I just know they'd get really suspicious of me... I reckon they'd start giving me more work than I can handle in order to prove something," she told Mamamia. 

"They probably wouldn't say that I'm not allowed to work from another location but I know it'll impact what they think of my work ethic, especially when it comes to things like promotions."

There are of course different levels of hush trips. Clare's version of taking a hush trip is on the lower scale of things. Many people have worked from a different location that wasn't their home for a few days here and there. 

But a top-level hush trip is taking a fully-fledged holiday without telling your manager. Think: travelling overseas or going on a cruise. These examples might sound extreme but it's a cheeky loophole to be able to take holidays without taking annual leave — as long as you continue to get your work done. 

To find out more, I spoke to People & Culture Manager, Jane*, to find out about the HR-aspect of it all. 

"I wouldn't get somebody in trouble specifically for the hush trip, but if productivity slipped, or a meeting was missed, or you were MIA, then that issue would come up and then I'd be wanting to dig into why that happened," Jane told Mamamia. 

There is however an important liability that most workers fail to consider when they take hush trips... what happens if you get injured on your holiday? 

Clare told me that most of her hush trips take place somewhere near a beach. So what would happen if Clare told her manager she's knuckle-deep in work but is actually taking a leisurely swim in the ocean and then gets stung by a jellyfish? 

Jane says that through workers' compensation — if your workplace agrees to you working in a certain location and you get injured at that location, your workplace is then liable. 

However, if you get injured at a location that your workplace didn't approve of, then your employer could potentially choose to decline it because they weren't informed that you'd be working there.

Of course, this is an extreme case but the embarrassment of having to tell my manager I've been injured on a trip they didn't know about is enough to make me never want to do it. God, it's enough to make me want to crawl out of my skin now. 

Ultimately, Jane says it's up to the individual person, but being transparent can often be the way to go. 

"Most people are really smart and capable and can make it work. I'd hope that most people have a good relationship with their manager and can give them a heads up, rather than making it a formal thing and not tell the wider team," she said. 

"It's a bit cheeky in nature, but if it doesn't impact anybody else and you're still performing, then go for it."

Basically, hush trip at your own risk people! 

If you want more culture opinions from Emily Vernem, you can follow her on Instagram @emilyvernem.

Feature image: Canva