The concept of workation is exploding!
Pre-Covid, not many knew what workation was. But post-covid, more and more people are interested in this term. So what exactly is a workation?
Is it the same as remote work? Or different?
Is it just a fad or a trend or a lifestyle choice?
This article will give you a complete overview of this concept. Let’s begin.
What’s a Workation?
The word ‘workation‘ combines two words – work and vacation.
Workation is becoming more popular in the United States and Europe. Technology and digitalization has allowed many people to work on their projects remotely.
For instance, you could be based out of India and serve a client in the US. Freelancing gigs and remote jobs are what allow one to take a workation.
There are usually three types of workation:
- Short-term workation usually lasts for three days or a mid-week vacation and is generally held nearby.
- Medium-term workation is usually scheduled for a few weeks to at least a month. It is generally held in places abroad.
- Long-term workation is also meant to be a temporary relocation to another spot. It usually lasts from a few months to even some years.
The difference between remote work and workation
Remote work means working from anywhere without commuting to the office. Workation is doing remote work while on a vacation.
Remote work can be working from home or any other place apart from the office. Workation is a form of remote work.
The main benefit of doing remote work is not having to commute and go to an office to work. While the main goal of workation is to be able to enjoy the benefits one gets by taking a vacation.
The Rising Trend of Workation
Just have a look at this new word through Google Trends.
You can clearly see that post-Covid, this word has seen a huge spike.
And as long as the concept of remote work gains more prominence, this trend too will benefit from it.
The benefits of workation
Here are some of them:
1. Seeing new places while also continuing to earn money
This is the biggest benefit. Everyone loves to travel and explore new places. But traditionally, one is always told to pick between either work or a holiday.
In a workation, one isn’t forced to choose between work or holiday. The very concept embraces both. So one can keep earning money while also enjoying the vacation.
2. Saving your unpaid leaves for a mega vacation
Companies today offer paid leaves. But often these are a limited number of days you can take off from work. But on a workation, you continue your day job. So you can save such paid leaves for big vacations with your family and friends.
3. Improves creativity
Meeting new people, seeing new places can light the fire of creativity in you. It might happen that you have a problem that you’re struggling to solve. But just getting a new perspective could help you find the right solution. As a result, this could help you bring more productive ideas to work.
4. Could increase your productivity
Okay – Can a workation actually boost your productivity? This is a double-edged sword. It’s easy to get distracted, but there’s a way through which you can use this distraction to your advantage.
When you’re on a vacation, you’ll see new places and meet new people. And often with these people, you might make plans to go somewhere. Also, exploring makes many people happy which once again do wonders for one’s productivity.
The disadvantages of workation
Here are a few cons of workation. They are as follows:
1. Perception of others
Many would look at you with suspicion and jealousy. Your superiors might question how effective you are and what your intentions are. One way to tackle this is to have an open and transparent conversation with the higher-ups.
On the other hand, your colleagues might get jealous of your progress.
2. Costs
Workationing is expensive compared to working from home or the office. Why? Because workationing involves finding a new place to stay and traveling to reach a new place.
Some of the costs you’ll have to bear include:
Travel tickets
Accommodation
Food and grocery
3. Missing home
You might get homesick. Not meeting your colleagues, friends and family could affect your overall mood. This could result in loss of concentration during work, lower productivity, etc.
One remedy to this is by arranging meetings and making calls back home.
4. Distraction
Imagine you’re taking a workstation in Bali. There are beaches nearby, the people are great and many things to tick off your bucket list. If every day you only think about the beaches, it’ll be hard to focus on work.
Environment matters more than you think. A remedy to this is to create a separate environment while you’re working on a workation.
What should you check before you take a workation?
When you’re going out to start your workation, you need to get a few things straight up. The essential things you need to make sure of before you step out are as follows:
1. The weather of the place you’ll take a workation to.
Make sure to check the weather before you leave. It plays a vital role in completing the work and your mood. Check the local news for future podcasts and note the perfect traveling time.
You don’t want to be stuck in your room, not able to enjoy the vacation because of the heavy rain.
2. Accommodations that help you work
Many don’t consider this. A workation isn’t a vacation – you still got work to do. So it’s better to choose a place where you can optimize for work.
Avoid places where it’s hard to concentrate. Hostels are usually not the best idea. Apartments are preferable.
3. Notify your team members
Transparency with your team members will take you a long way. You could tell them when you’ll work and when you can’t. This way they wouldn’t disturb you when you’re away from work, exploring the place.
Conclusion
Workation is a great way to explore new places while continuing to earn. While the concept of workation is still relatively unexplored, more people will adapt to it, especially as remote work gains more popularity.
For some, workation could become a lifestyle too, given that one can sustain it financially and mentally.
