According to a new study, 95% of staffers aged between 18 and 34 said some form of “workplace cheating” is to be expected—whether that’s clocking off early, unexpectedly turning up late, or using AI to complete assigned tasks.

Not only that, but more than half of the 2,000 Americans who responded to writing services company PapersOwl admitted to “quiet vacationing” at least once in the past 12 months.

Quiet vacationing refers to the situation of an employee taking time off without notifying management and maintaining the illusion of being at work.

However, while rule-abiding colleagues might judge their teammates for such actions, many do so because they have no other choice.

For example, 46% of respondents said they had taken unauthorized time off because they were struggling with burnout or were mentally unable to perform the task that day.

Furthermore, 36% said they had maintained the illusion of being online while secretly dealing with family matters like childcare or supporting parents, with 31% also adding they had to quietly take a day off because their PTO allowance was limited.

Interestingly, only one out of the thousands of people questioned said they had taken a quiet vacation day simply because they could.

This correlates to the broader trends that workplaces are seeing in their younger employees, who are craving a better work-life balance than their Gen X or boomer colleagues.

For example, a study conducted late last year of frontline Gen Z workers—those dealing directly with a customer, be it in retail, hospitality, care, or otherwise—found 58% would rather have an extra week of holiday than a pay rise.

“People’s work preferences have rapidly evolved over the past five years,” said Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence, which worked with UKG on said study.

“When you couple that with the digital, on-demand lifestyle that Gen Z has known their whole lives, it’s easy to see why the often-rigid nature of working in a physical location like a factory, hospital, school, warehouse, or retail shop would leave younger workers craving more choice.”

It also wouldn’t be fair to assume that just because Gen Z and young millennials admit to workplace cheating, they are doing so the most frequently, given the fact this study only questioned their cohort.

Indeed, according to the 2024 Lunch Report—which surveyed 5,000 employees—Gen Z is the most likely generation to skip lunch. More than half of young workers say they miss the meal twice a week and are four times more likely than boomers to feel guilty for taking a break from work. 

How are employees ‘cheating’?

Staffers PapersOwl spoke to aren’t just curbing the rules at the start or the end of the day; they’re gaming the system as it suits them.

For example, while 34% of people admitted to having clocked out early without sign-off from their boss, 27% said they’d pulled a sick day to cover an unplanned event.

Likewise, 11% admitted to napping during the working day while logged on remotely, and 11% revealed they had logged hours they hadn’t actually signed on for.

Another tactic is an RTO-promoted trend called coffee badging, where employees go to the office to tap their badge for attendance but leave after having a brief catch-up (or coffee) with colleagues to work elsewhere.

More than a third of the young respondents (36%) admitted to doing so more than 10 times in the past 12 months, with their motivations mainly arising from the desire for more flexibility in their working day.

The second most cited reason is that the coffee badgers preferred working somewhere else, followed by the motivation to avoid distractions.