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?
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
How very dystopian
If you’re working, you aren’t on vacation
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you’re working permanent remote, just do what I did and move to where you like to vacation.
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
This is propaganda… Plain and simple.
Yep. This is on par with the onslaught of bullshit articles telling us going back to office is better for us, the drive is a good disconnect, etc. It’s nothing but capitalist drivel paid for by capitalists.
Sounds like self funded business trip.
- ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶ ( @luthis@lemmy.nz ) 5•1 year ago
Come to NZ, we also had a really shit summer!
The only way I’d do that is if my employer paid for travel, food, and lodging. And even then, I’d do as much as I could before leaving and then just phone it in during the week as much as possible.
Some people like the idea but to me that only makes sense if you are basically doing the nomad thing at a cheap location. You’d want to stay in the place for awhile as you’re still spending most of the “vacation” working all day. On your days off you could do more. On an actual vacation you would actually be enjoying yourself the whole time. Traveling to just spend all your time working seems like a waste.
Also just try to work on just a laptop for a week. It sucks. I’m not doing that.