I have recently received several ads on LinkedIn regarding workation. I am not sure if I think it sounds stupid or not.
I get the appeal of going south (I am from Denmark, we just had the most rainy summer ever recorded) and enjoy the weather, but at the same time it sounds like the perfect way to not enjoy your time abroad.
I work in a position where I could easily ask to work remote for a week or two, thus the targeting ad is correct that I am in the segment.
Any thoughts, experience or opinion on this?
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The idea of “work vacations” only exists because capitalism demands the entirety of our lives. I’m not working on my vacation, period.
I agree but it’s supposed to be the other way around: Have a bit of vacation while you work. You still get your actual PTO in addition to that which you can use on an actual vacation.
See it never works out that way. My experience has been that I’m stuck working more than I am vacationing, and when I’m not working, I’m thinking about work the whole time. It also means I’m not doing the same level of focused work as I can at home. I have hardcore ADHD and introducing more distractions is something I have to personally steer away from. So I’m either in (fully on a vacation) or I’m out (fully working in my own space). There’s no in between.
I also see it as having vacatio while you work, plus you have plain old vacation without working.
I think that’s a skewed way of looking at it. I can see the appeal if your family is able to take advantage. Like if your kids are off and your spouse doesn’t work (or maybe can also work remotely). That way you can enjoy some nicer weather and a different location and are able to stay longer. It’s definitely not for me because like you said I’d rather just have a vacation, but I think blaming it on capitalism is a bit of an odd way of looking at what’s essentially someone’s lifestyle choice.
The problem is that it gets presented as a way to take time off from your job with “unlimited” vacation time while still working, which of crap.
The idea only works as a more extreme form of remote work. So, remote work where some of the time is at Grandma’s.
not to say all the places that I’ve been to reliability of stuff like Internet, and so on has been very has been very bad in most places you would like to be.  Given you’re expected to perform your normal work. This might be quite stressful.
I’ve had multiple times where I’ve told employers I was working in a new location and 100% of those times I had some sort of new caveat in regards to workspace, internet, etc. that has hindered me.
IDK, seems stupid to me. The whole point of going to a vacation is to get away from work… well, at least for me. Some workaholics out there might disagree, but that’s not me 🤷.
What if you put on top? Let’s say you get your vacation + 4 week of workation? Very useful for me to visit the family tbh
Cool do they pay for me to travel there? Like I’ve got friends on every coast and I’d be down to work from near their homes for a week or two, but I’m not paying to travel to hang out with my friends after work.
Also what are the odds I keep my vacation days? Like seriously. PTO replaced vacation + sick claiming you get more flexible days and now we all have the same amount of vacation but get to spend it when we’re too sick/infectious to work.
Idk, presumably you have time before/after work everyday plus a weekend in this other place without travel. I feel like I could enjoy something like this.
Not me, thanks. I would rather pay for my own vacation, but everyone just leave me TF alone.
If you’re working, you aren’t on vacation
How very dystopian
I did it for about a month and and loved it. We got an Airbnb in Arizona. We woke up early, clocked out early, and went hiking nearly every day. The weekends we did a trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, both great experiences. If you can make it work, then try it out. I know tons of people that maintain jobs while travelling almost full time.
I’m on vacation with my extended family and I brought my laptop. I didn’t expect to get a lot of work done, but so far I’ve only been able to keep up with emails. There’s always something to do and someone who wants my attention. Family definitely comes first, and I’m enjoying the vacation, but I’m getting very little work done.
How did you manage that? Who did you travel with? How did you separate work time from fun time?
Our situation was a bit different since it was just me and my wife. We both had our 8 hour work schedules so we kept to our jobs for most of the day. I also recall taking a day off to make a three day weekend here and there.
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One day here and there, sure. Going to another place to work for a week or more? Absolutely stupid. Work is still work, and if you have to work, you might as well work in the best conditions, not on some small screen that you can barely see because of the sun.
The question is not “is it better than a normal vacation?” where of course the answer is “no.” Rather, the question is “is it better than your regular work routine?” The answer to that depends on a lot of factors: your specific job, personality, personal finances, family obligations, etc. I think there are lots of circumstances where it could make sense for some people.
As someone who is right now working from abroad by necessity - this idea is full of shit.
Yes, you won’t get a chance to properly enjoy your time away, you will always have time constrains (remember - you still need to work, and it’s still on top of your priority list), you will only get to enjoy the country like 2h a day (or whatever you had before as “me” time - that time didn’t change much) .
Assuming you are not going out far from your usual timezone - you will basically only enjoy it in the evenings, and if you are adventurous enough to move very far away from your original timezone - gl, because now you will have all the timezone mess upon you and possibly are working in the unusual hours.
In short: your work will suffer, you will suffer, you won’t get to enjoy your vacation and the country and on top of that - this will cost you more money than you usually pay! What a steal (literally).
And what happened to someone I know is: When they came back, everyone acted like as if they had a full vacation and not just worked abroad. Everyone expected them to have magically recovered from work and they were asked to not take “another vacation” because “they already had one”. On top their work from abroad was looked at way more critical, because some people assumed you can’t do your work well when the beach is waiting for you.
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I worked remotely from Caye Caulker Belize for severalmonths and I was literally the dude in this photo, only much more stoned.
Sounds like an expensive way to work with little reward. I’m all for making work as pleasant as possible, but paying to stay in a hotel just to work seems like a bad idea. It could be interesting in some ways in certain positions.
I was surprised when I looked into digital nomad visas last year, how cheap an airbnb was to book for a month out of season.
Edit, missed that they said a week or 2
It’s great. But you have to approach it differently than a vacation. You go to a different location, find a nice place to work, and work. On your downtime you can go out and explore. But don’t push it. You need to focus on mostly working. And maybe on the weekends exploring. If you do that you’ll have a great time.
But I think most people try to cram in a vacation in addition to working everyday. And they hate it. Because they’re overloaded. Just think of it as working from a new place for a while. And it’s got some interesting things to do. It’s not a vacation opportunity you need to exploit to its fullest.
This goes double e so if you’re traveling to be opposite side of the world and have time zone issues. Your work has to be your priority. So maintain that time zone. And don’t try to stay up at weird times. It’s going to impact your enjoyment of the workday
Have an international SIM card before you go. Like Google Fi. Or anything from Arlo.
Map out coworking spaces or coffee shops in the area where you’re going to stay. Have at least two locations you could work from in case internet has issues.
Don’t assume the hotel internet will be up to standard. It might be that’d be great. But don’t depend on it. That internet can be very stressful for remote working
Paying money to work isn’t something I would consider worth it. Sure, I might get a bit of free time in the evenings, but it doesn’t seem like enough to justify the travel and lodging costs
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7½ weeks in my case One reason why the idea was somewhat appealing was that I usually spend a lot of my vacation with other people, but now and then sometime alone would be a nice change. It would be an easy way to go on an “ego trip” without sacrificing time with my friends.
They could have 6 weeks of proper vacation then stay on in a nice place and work from there an extra few weeks. You’re not sacrificing vacation time.
If you have an office job with projects, deadlines and zoom meetings, especially when your job is interconnected with other colleagues and departments, then its an absolutely stupid idea. It always sounded like a HR buzzword or even borderline corporate propaganda showing people with laptops on a beaches and forests, etc. You can either not fully enjoy your holiday or not do your job properly.
If you more on a freelance side, or have a type of job where you can have a few productive hours a day to cover your full workday/responsibilities and still have time to enjoy your surroundings then go for it.
I would personally never do it.
Come to NZ, we also had a really shit summer!
