The Rise of "Hush Trips": Working Remotely Without Telling the Boss
- What Are Hush Trips — and Why Are They Growing?
- HR, Legal, and Compliance Considerations
- How Hush Trips Affect Productivity, Morale, and Mental Health
- Company Culture, Psychological Safety, and Trust
- Making Remote Work from Anywhere Possible: Portable Power Solutions
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Future of Remote Work Is Transparent and Mobile
The United States Census Bureau found that 5.7% of U.S. workers typically worked from home in 2019. By 2023, that figure jumped to 13.8%.
But what if you could swap your spare room/home office for a coffee spot on the beach? Well, the luxury of working from anywhere isn’t limited to freelancers and entrepreneurs. Some of your colleagues may be taking so-called “hush trips”. They might not be telling anyone about it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. The question is: should you do it too? Let’s take a closer look:
What Are Hush Trips — and Why Are They Growing?
A hush trip is where a remote employee works from a vacation spot without informing their employer. Meeting all of their requirements and deadlines—just from another setting.
The pandemic proved that remote working can be just as effective as office work. Alongside this, social media has sparked a growing desire for travel. Hush trips meld the two together.
As long as you have your laptop with you and a reliable power supply, you’re good to go. However, there are legal and ethical factors to consider when deciding if this is for you.
HR, Legal, and Compliance Considerations
Hush trips exist in a legal gray area. They aren’t inherently illegal, but often go against company policy. A business typically has good reasons for its location policies, which may include jurisdiction-specific labor laws, data restrictions, tax obligations, and insurance requirements.
Most companies ask that you maintain consistent work hours. A 40-hour week would typically have you slogging away from 9am to 5pm. If you’re in a different part of the world, you’re likely in a different timezone. But as long as you clock in at your agreed hours, your secret trip could go undetected.
Many hotels are capitalizing on the hush trip trend and providing coworking spaces for their guests. However, even if these spaces operate 24/7, they can’t be fully relied upon, and missing an important meeting because your laptop died can raise questions about your location. This is where a reliable power bank becomes critical. EcoFlow has a range of portable chargers to suit every need, whether you get to stay juiced up for an impromptu Zoom or you’re settling in for an 8-hour slog at a co-working space.
How Hush Trips Affect Productivity, Morale, and Mental Health
This isn’t about breaking rules. While you may bend some in the process, the aim is to recharge after a burnout or prevent one from occurring altogether. The Sunday night blues likely don’t hit you when you’re waking up by a beach on Monday morning.
With micro-doses of novelty throughout your working week, you aren’t waiting months for a vacation—you’re technically on a part-time one. If you work Monday to Friday, you’re already where you need to be for a relaxing weekend.
However, it can backfire. If you let your surroundings distract you, you’re likely going to invoke stress, not serenity. The morale boost only works if you’re free from constraints. Having sufficient power at the ready stops you from running into hiccups, meaning you can choose your workspace based on inspiration, not outlet availability.
EcoFlow Power Banks
Company Culture, Psychological Safety, and Trust
When employees take hush trips, they’re betting that what their managers don’t know won’t hurt them. However, if they get found out, trust could be permanently broken.
With so many companies priding themselves on flexibility and autonomy, it poses the question of why many feel the need to hide their hush trip from their employer?
If an employee doesn’t feel psychologically safe being honest about wanting to travel while working, it could be that the company's policies don’t match the reality of remote work. If you can be trusted to work from your home office, why can’t you be trusted working from a different country?
Making Remote Work from Anywhere Possible: Portable Power Solutions
Whether you work for a company that embraces hush trips or not, your working schedule can’t afford to be disturbed by power issues. Hauling around multiple chargers, hunting for outlets, or confining yourself to one place can kill the flexibility that makes traveling while working so attractive.
With the EcoFlow RIVER 3 Plus Portable Power Station, you have 600W of output supported by X-Boost technology that’s powerful enough to run your laptop, charge your phone, and power a portable monitor simultaneously. With four ways to charge and 0-100% in an hour, you don’t have to worry about recharging during your working day.
Now, working remotely doesn’t always mean sitting by a beach or pool. Perhaps you’ve swapped the sand and sea for a camping trip, and you’re hopping from site to site. The EcoFlow RIVER 3 is compact and lightweight - equipped with a comfortable handle, and will easily fit into small spaces like closets, a minivan, or a bag for easy storage and portability. Running at a whisper quiet <30 dB, you don’t need to worry about disturbing anyone around you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Hush Trips?
A hush trip is when you perform your remote work from a location outside your home without notifying your boss. Effectively, it’s a part-time vacation where you can enjoy new surroundings, relax, and unwind while escaping the monotony of a typical 9-5.
Is It Possible To Be 100% Secure While Working Remotely?
A primary reason your company would disapprove of a hush trip is security. When you log onto company systems from unfamiliar networks, such as a hotel's WiFi, you could be exposing sensitive data to interception. A reputable antivirus software can mitigate the chances, but it is not 100% effective.
What Makes Portable Power Stations Useful for Hush Trips?
Abruptly disappearing during the working day is a sure-fire way to raise suspicion, both about your productivity and location. Power banks offer lightning-fast charging, allowing you to move around without worrying that your computer gear will die once fully charged.
The Future of Remote Work Is Transparent and Mobile
As more companies adopt work-from-home policies, employees have greater freedom regarding where they work. While your company may not explicitly allow you to work from Cabo, if you show up on time, get your work done, and fly under the radar, you might just get away with it. However, many companies are on board with (or at least turn a blind eye to) employees working from anywhere, as long as their performance doesn’t drop. As transparency becomes the new norm and companies embrace true mobility, a reliable power bank, like those from EcoFlow, will become essential in any remote worker’s arsenal.