AS I’M WRITING THIS, I’m sitting on a hotel room’s veranda, soaking up the Hunter Valley’s winter sun while overlooking a vineyard with panoramic views of the towering Broken Back mountain range. In a few hours’ time I’ll be sampling some of the local stock during a wine tasting and treating myself to a nice dinner. Life is good.
It’s a workday, but I’m not hunched over a desk in the always grey, always busy, CBD. Nor am I trying to be productive while countless distractions vie for my attention in my makeshift home office. I’m on a hush trip in one of Australia’s most-visited wine regions and staying in a bougie hotel, working remotely, but not from home. And here’s the best part – my boss has no idea.
There are certainly worse places to work than this spot at voco Kirkton Park.
Since the COVID pandemic, working remotely has entered the mainstream. Gone are the days of commuting five times a week and committing far more time to work than life outside of it. Hybrid models are in, and Australians are working remotely more than ever. Now they’re starting to realise that working remotely doesn’t have to mean working from home – which is where hush trips come in.
The loosely defined nature of remote work leaves plenty of wiggle room for experimentation. Under the concept of a hush trip, remote work can mean working from just about anywhere – including a holiday destination by the beach, in wine country, or in a lively cityscape. Bosses also don’t need to know about the relocation, so long as you’re still getting your work done.
In practice, a hush trip could mean starting a weekend away a day early. Rather than getting stuck in traffic on Friday afternoon, arriving at your destination late at night and having to turn around before you’ve even settled in, you would leave on Thursday night, work *remotely* on Friday, and enjoy a full weekend away.
The benefits don’t end with adding a day to a holiday, either. A change of scenery can work wonders in achieving a more fulfilling work-life balance. Rather than finishing the day by joining the crowds on public transport or getting stuck in traffic before returning home to do chores, you could be clocking off and immediately entering holiday mode. Take it from me, it can be quite the mood booster.
voco Kirkton Park, from the sky
It would be easy to go full-on boomer and assume that hush trips are just the latest Gen-Z excuse to do less work, but a widespread desire to improve work-life balance by any means necessary could be symptomatic of a society verging on burnout. Perhaps the reason hush trips are gaining prominence isn’t related to slacking off, but instead shows that, similar to quiet quitting, workers are placing greater value on their time and are willing to bolster their work-life balance even if it requires a few white lies.
According to Dean Jones, the IHG hotels Asia Pacific’s Commercial VP, the rise of hush trips can at least partially be accounted for by the wide range of scenic locations and classy hotels in Australia. “We’re incredibly fortunate in Australia, and New Zealand for that matter, that we can stretch from the coast to wine regions, to rainforests and snowfields in a matter of hours,” Jones says.
As hush trips are gaining traction, hotels are rising to meet increasing demand with bespoke packages and perks that specifically cater to hush trippers. For that very reason, the site of my hush trip was voco Kirkton Park, an IHG hotel. IHG is rolling out a range of hush trip packages tailored to each destination. At Kirkton Park, the perks included unlimited barista coffee, which helped me stay caffeinated while working, and a hush money voucher to spend on meals at the hotel – which is helpful when you can’t spend too much time offline.
At various other participating hotels like the InterContinental Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, Holiday Inn on the Sunshine Coast and the Crowne Plaza Hawkesbury Valley, the perks include complimentary knock-off drinks once you’ve finished work, a free upgrade to a suite, late checkout pushed all the way back to 5pm, and at some locations, you’ll even get your own personal assistant to run errands and field calls.
InterContinental Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, another participating hotel
The obvious caveat to a hush trip is the risk of getting caught by your boss – technically you haven’t done anything wrong mind you, unless your contract specifically states that your remote workdays must be at a set location, which it won’t. In the event that you do get caught on a hush trip and your boss is none too happy about your ability to find loopholes, IHG is offering a ‘Boss Bust’ guarantee, where you can redeem a free stay at any one of over 6,000 hotels if you’re caught in the act.
While IHG’s hush trip packages are only available for a limited time, adapting to meet changing lifestyles and work-balances is something that will remain in focus. “IHG has always been a leader in providing inviting, flexible spaces that encourage a blend of work and leisure,” says Jones. “Hush Trips are certainly a fun, tongue-in-cheek offer to help liven up the winter, but the essence of accommodating a fluid working style isn’t something that will go away.”
So, was my hush trip actually effective – and did I get away with it? My productivity was largely unaffected and was comparable to working from home, but the obvious benefit was being able to work in a scenic location where fresh air, sunshine and sights that are pleasant to look at can significantly enhance the working experience. There was also the bonus that clocking off didn’t signal the beginning of a painfully slow slog on the commute home, but the start of an evening exploring the best the Hunter Valley had to offer.
As for my boss finding out, my hush trip thankfully remained a secret – at least until I file this article, of course, but I’ll deal with that later. By blurring your background on Zoom calls and maintaining an online presence, it’s actually fairly easy to get away with a hush trip. But you shouldn’t feel too guilty about taking them anyway. As long as you’re staying productive, the affect on your workplace will be minimal. Hopefully, the impact on your work-life balance won’t be.
Find out more about hush trips here.
The Crowne Plaza Hawkesbury Valley will upgrade you to a suite for your hush trip, but with views like this, you might prefer to work outside.
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