The company Kickresume has carried out new research into ‘ghost vacationing’, or unauthorized time off work. They surveyed nearly 2000 workers to find out who’s is absent the most, Americans or Europeans?
“Ghost vacationing” refers to the practice of taking time off work without formally requesting or logging it, effectively disappearing from the workplace unofficially.
These data show how 32% of U.S. employees and 33% of Europeans have taken unannounced time off work. In both regions, the most common length for a ghost vacation was a single day (U.S. 28%, Europe 27%).
In the U.S., 49% of employees said they had never done this, compared to 53% of European workers. A small proportion in both regions (3% in the U.S. and 5% in Europe) said they did so regularly.
As to underlying factors, U.S. workers who have never taken unannounced time off are almost twice as likely than European employees to say mental health would be the reason, if they ever did.
AI-powered career tool Kickresume has surveyed 1,897 people to learn how common ‘ghost vacations’ are in both the U.S. and Europe, comparing the two different work cultures. A ghost vacation or quiet vacation is when people take time off from work without officially telling their employer.
As U.S. workers tend to have less paid time off than those in Europe due to different labour laws, the survey sought to explore if this would affect how workers on either side of the Atlantic felt about this topic.
Kickresume also looked into coworkers secretly covering for each other when they’re on ghost vacations. 47% of American workers had never done this, along with 39% of European workers.
However, 42% in the U.S. and 41% in Europe said they had both been covered by a colleague when they were on an unofficial break and had returned the favor for someone else. 6% of American workers and 5% of Europeans had only asked someone to cover them, while 6% of Americans along with 14% of Europeans had only ever covered for others.
In both regions, ghost vacations were usually only one day. 27% of Americans and 28% of Europeans who had taken a ghost vacation said this was the length of their longest unannounced time off work. For 21% of Americans and 23% of Europeans, the longest they had disappeared for was half a day. 18% of workers in the U.S. and 22% of those in Europe said they had taken two to three days off work without telling their boss.
Longer ghost vacations were much rarer, as 5% of Americans and 4% of Europeans said they had taken four to seven days. Only 5% in the U.S. and 2% in Europe had ghost vacationed for a week or longer.
The survey asked respondents what their main reason was for taking a ghost vacation. 34% of people in the U.S. and 38% in Europe named family or personal reasons. The other leading reason was mental health or burnout, according to 34% of American workers and 33% of Europeans.
The research also explored what might tempt people who had not taken a ghost vacation before, revealing differences in the data between Europe and the U.S. Americans were nearly twice as likely than Europeans to say burnout and mental health would lead them to take secret time off, at 36% compared to 20%. However, people in the U.S. were less likely to say family or personal reasons, at 17% compared to 27% of those in Europe.
Of workers who had not taken unannounced time off, 28% of Americans said they wouldn’t do it, compared to 34% of Europeans. Kickresume said this statistic could be connected to more relaxed annual leave policies in Europe, which may make it easier to get time off work through official channels.
The survey asked workers what their biggest concerns were when it came to ghost vacations. 22% of Americans and 25% of Europeans were worried about losing trust or credibility at work, and 14% on both sides of the Atlantic were afraid of being caught out by their manager. But 10% of respondents in Europe said they had no concerns and felt safe taking unannounced time off work — higher than the percentage of those in the U.S. who gave this answer, at 6%.
