Vacation during working hours seems like a dream – but is it really?
We provide a workation evaluation, weigh the pros and cons and look at the lessons we have learned so far.
* Workation evaluation – Lessons Learned so far
Workation – Work and Vacation – has become a popular tool in recent years for companies to give employees a little relief. After all, who doesn’t want to escape the gray daily work life for a few weeks?
In this article, you’ll learn a little more about what we have learned from our workation experiences so far, and what possible consequences it could entail.
Work on vacation
At first glance, it seems strange to put the two words work and vacation together. Normally, when we are on vacation, we don’t want to think about our job, we want to switch off.
In the past, digital nomads in particular, i.e. remote workers, were not tied to a specific workplace. But in the age of digitalization and technological progress, more employees get the opportunity – regardless of the industry – to work from somewhere else.
Workation is about escaping your work routine.
For a limited time, employees can travel to a specific country and do their work from there. Whether from the beach, a big city or the mountains – the location doesn’t matter. The only important thing is that the Internet connection is stable enough and that the agreed times are adhered to. The rest is mostly up to the employees.
Is all that glitters gold?
Workation evaluation – Lessons Learned so far
Vacation during working hours seems like a dream at first. But is this concept really ideal? We weigh the pros and cons.
Pros:
- The advantages are obvious. You discover new places and experience a different culture.
- In addition to the usual work tasks, you can relax a little.
- Change of scenery: Everyone needs a change from the usual four office walls.
- Travel stimulates creativity. New impulses arise from new impressions.
- Flexibility – employees are free to decide where they want to work from.
- Traveling with other team members can additionally be a good way to get to know each other better and build a stronger team
2022 Facts and figures about workation
Clearly, the concept of Workation is extremely attractive to employees.
But we also come across some benefits for companies themselves. According to statistics from workation.com
- 93% of employees are more productive than before.
- This increases the performance of remote working by 20% overall.
- In turn, the company saves per remote employee $11,000 per year.
- In addition, 86% of Millennials want more flexibility in the workplace.
- Workation can be a great solution to create more agility and increase employee satisfaction.
Cons:
- Complete relaxation is not guaranteed. You probably think about work most of the time and so you can’t switch off completely. Especially when your job is hectic and you have a lot to do it’s hard to enjoy the vacation part of workation.
- Your technical equipment – laptop, cables, etc. – adds extra baggage.
- If the Internet connection is not stable, you can hardly do your job.
Maintaining a better work-life balance with workation
In the end, however, it is worth giving the concept of workation a chance. In most cases, employees return more relaxed and can continue working with renewed energy. Complications can’t be avoided, but after all, they also arise during normal travel.
We at MDI have already tested workation ourselves. If you want to know how it went, you can read about it here 🙂
