Quiet vacationing is the latest workplace buzzword dominating headlines and a sobering reality is getting lost in the mix: employees are overworked. Behind workplace trends like quiet quitting, quiet vacationing and great exhaustion, there's a collective undertone looking for relief from relentless work.

Karyn Rhodes, VP of HR Services at isolved, argues "quiet vacationing" is a temporary solution for employees to find an appropriate work-life balance on their own. She believes employers shouldn't lose sight of the underlying truth behind these buzzwords and instead confront the epidemic of overwork in our workplace.

Can you explain the concept of "quiet vacationing"? What factors have driven employees to covertly take vacation days instead of openly taking their PTO?

"Quiet vacationing" is a new trend where employees take work-life balance into their own hands by incorporating downtime breaks into their schedules without officially informing their managers or submitting PTO requests. It can be moving their mouse every few minutes to keep their status "green" and indicate that they're online, or employees can even work from a hotel room or cafe in a completely different country.