For the last two years, Thuc Anh, 26, a marketing employee in HCMC, has used none of her 12 days of annual leave for fear of being assigned work while on break.

During her holidays in early 2024, while she was traveling on the Prenn Pass, en route to the former city of Da Lat in central Lam Dong Province, her department head called, asking for an urgent edit on an advertisement piece.

It was her client, and so pulled her motorbike over and turned on her laptop to work. After arriving at a restaurant, her companion had to eat first while she continued handling the client's requests.

"If taking time off means constantly being on edge, jumping every time your phone vibrates, you’d be better off staying in office to finish work rather than spending money just to change your work location," her companion remarked.

On another trip, Anh decided to turn off her phone, only to be reprimanded and have half of her quarterly bonus cut on the dubious grounds that "her being unreachable had caused work to pile up."

After that incident, she has chosen never to go on leave, since taking time off merely meant she would lose meal and transport allowances while still having to work.

An IT employee postpones his hike up Mount Ham Lon in Hanoi to deal with office work despite being on leave. Photo by N.D

Chi Hung, 30, has worked at a Hanoi-based technology company for eight years. Despite having 13 days of annual leave per year, he also rarely uses them after getting calls and messages on several occasions while on leave demanding that he perform office work.

His manager explained that the department was understaffed after layoffs, meaning Hung, as a core team member, could not be missing from any task.

While the manager claimed that "handling things via phone for a few minutes is not difficult," each task actually took anywhere between 30 minutes and half a day to resolve.

During a family trip to Co To Island in the northern Quang Ninh Province, Hung had to use mobile data to attend an online meeting while traveling on a high-speed boat. On another occasion, while hiking Mount Ham Lon in the former Soc Son District in Hanoi, he put his laptop in his backpack in case something came up.

To avoid handling personal affairs and working during his leave, he now asks to work remotely whenever he has personal matters to deal with. This way, he keeps his full income and allowances.

On social media, "giving up annual leave because of constant work requests" has become a hot topic and drawn tens of thousands of posts on Threads.

On the other hand, many TikTok videos show employees taking their laptops on vacation or handling work via phone, with one video garnering 264,000 views and over 12,000 comments.

Vietnamese lawmakers have taken cognizance of this issue.

At the National Assembly this June, Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, full-time deputy and member of the Committee for Culture and Education, sought the inclusion of the "right to disconnect after work hours and on days off" in the Labor Code.

However, she emphasized that while employees have the right to disconnect, it should be exercised judiciously depending on the sector and nature of job since workers in certain specialized industries could not fully disconnect when emergency situations arise.

This ensures that businesses and institutions could operate normally and without disruptions, she said.

From an employer's perspective, Nguyen Hai, director of a 40-employee logistics company in Hai Phong, said his business encouraged staff to take leave provided they ensured their assigned work was on track beforehand.

He compared company operations to an assembly line, where one person's absence could affect the entire workflow, requiring responsible employees to step in when unexpected problems occurred.

"To be recognized and promoted, employees should act for the common benefit of the company. You cannot leave your work unfinished to go on vacation," he said.

Speaking with VnExpress, Prof. Dr. Andreas Stoffers, a lecturer at FOM University of Applied Sciences in Germany and an expert in Southeast Asian business relations, says the "reluctance to take leave" exists in many economies.

A competitive work environment, fear of losing one’s job, and the habit of measuring commitment by presence rather than performance have contributed to this phenomenon.

In Vietnam, the influence of the East Asian workplace culture puts pressure on young workers to stay constantly online in order to prove themselves.

Pham Tuan Phuc, executive director of Robert Walters Vietnam, a senior management recruitment agency, says employees' fear of taking leave also stems from heavy workloads amid workforce shortages.

His firm's 2026 Talent Trends report highlights the phenomenon of "quiet cracking" in workplaces, in which employees maintain surface-level performance while experiencing internal distress caused by heavy workloads, unclear expectations, and a feeling of not being heard.

Stoffers mainly blames managers for this, saying they must safeguard the health of their employees by ensuring they take rest as required by law, and should evaluate subordinates based on results rather than working hours.

The 2019 Labor Code stipulates that normal working time shall not exceed 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week, and employees who have worked for 12 months are entitled to 12 days of fully paid annual leave.

In Germany, the statutory minimum is 20 paid leave days annually for employees working five days a week, or 24 days for those on a six-day schedule.

The German Federal Labor Court also requires employers to actively remind employees to use their leave entitlements. Violations of working-hour regulations that intentionally endanger employees' health can result in fines of up to €30,000 (US$33,600) or criminal prosecution.

"The issue lies not only in law enforcement, but also in the mindset of some managers who view employees merely as tools to achieve targets," Stoffers says.

Working at high intensity over prolonged periods without recovery time directly impacts health. In 2019, the World Health Organization included workplace burnout in the International Classification of Diseases.

Furthermore, a report last April by the International Labour Organization revealed that psychosocial risks at work, including overwork and chronic stress, are linked to over 840,000 annual deaths worldwide, mainly due to cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders.

In Vietnam, the Hanoi Heart Hospital reports a 10–20% increase in cardiovascular patients every year, with more and more of them being in their 30s and 40s.

According to Phuc, to end the practice of assigning employees work while they are on leave, resource allocation and pre-leave workload management are key. Many multinational corporations and major enterprises are building structured planning and handover procedures so that one person's leave does not disrupt overall progress, he says.

Employees will only feel comfortable using their annual leave when they do not return to a pile of work or feel judged as irresponsible, he adds.

"Taking time off does not hurt productivity; a workforce that has recharged its energy will deliver better results in the long term."