A Big Tech employee shares 5 tips on how to spend a peaceful vacation after 10 weeks away from work

Meet Tobi Oluwole, a former employee of a large technology company who spent ten weeks on vacation in 2022-2023 but officially reported only three weeks of leave.

Now a full-time entrepreneur and LinkedIn founder, Oluwole recalls the weeks of traveling he took while working for a large tech company. In 2022, he traveled every six weeks and only took two weeks of vacation. In 2023, Oluwole had a leisurely three weeks on holiday but reported just one week of holiday.

“Over 15 months, I spent a total of ten weeks on a leisurely vacation, taking time away from my fully remote job,” he said. he said .

“I think a quiet vacation can be good for productivity; I was truly happy traveling around the world, which translated into my productivity at work.”

It’s growing tendency amongst distant staff, called a quiet vacation, involves employees taking day off without informing their boss – it’s an alternate to the silent leave movement.

How Oluwole managed to go on holiday without knowing about his job, as a distant employee he had to undertake and consider certain processes before departure. He outlines these considerations in five tips that he shares with other distant staff who want to add more restful vacations to their workweek.

Learn how to construct systems that can allow you to do your job more effectively, but in less time.

“As long as you perform, fewer eyes will be on you,” Oluwole says. “I figured since we were working remotely, all I had to do was make sure my team was always doing well and I could be anywhere in the world.”

Oluwole developed a system to automate messages and tasks and scheduled dedicated time in his calendar to prevent booking random meetings. He had team members send notes or read AI-generated meeting summaries and used a virtual background for conversations. As a manager, he still had the team under his care, which he achieved by implementing effective systems similar to reducing the time of all one-on-one meetings from an hour to just 15-Half-hour a week. He also created a every day revenue tracker to keep his team informed of the goals they need to achieve to meet their monthly and quarterly quotas.

Learn how to get work done through people.

“Whenever there was work to be done on my quiet days on vacation, I delegated as much work as I could to my team,” Oluwole said.

“I selected a team captain who stood in for me during team meetings after I was a tourist, and paired people up according to their strengths and weaknesses. That’s why the team almost never exceeded the quota.”

His team also enjoyed the delegation and had “good things” to say about Oluwole’s management style. He attributes this to the motivation and inspiration he provided to his team through support and financial assurance.

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Quality time also helped. Oluwole hung out along with his team outside of work and even planned annual trips with them. He also avoided micromanaging, which motivated them to keep working hard even when he wasn’t around.

Say “no” more often to projects that do not align along with your profession goals.

“It really helped me avoid playing politics and the career ladder,” Oluwole said. “If the opportunity didn’t serve my long-term goals or was too high-profile, I would turn it down.”

“I rejected projects claiming that I did not have enough computing power, and I also refused to participate in meetings that were not necessary,” he added.

Build something you own outside of work.

While working at a large technology company, Oluwole was energetic on LinkedIn, gaining over 100,000 followers. He promoted a profession camp on the platform and partnered with multiple brands, earning between $5,000 and $8,000 a month on top of his day job.

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“Having my own classes allowed me to not feel pressured to follow all the rules. It also gave me an income that I could use to travel and do it all without fear.”

Try to find a boss who values ​​your productivity greater than your physical presence, although this may increasingly be beyond your control.

“Sometimes my boss and sometimes even my superiors would ask me about my schedule and availability, but it was rare and not a big problem,” Oluwole said.

Due to his team’s strong performance and skill to meet their goals, Oluwole received positive reviews, which resulted in a 13% raise on the tech company. After ten weeks of leisurely vacations throughout the yr, he left the corporate, moved to Paris, France along with his wife and have become self-employed full time.