Workations: The Future Of Remote Work And Vacation Combined

The transformative power of workations in the new era of digital nomads

A true workation is a working vacation; leaving one’s city or country for a week or longer. Getting a true change of scenery. Logging in and working fully remotely using the video conferencing and visual collaboration tools that the pandemic brought us. With Covid behind us, the workation is here to stay into the future.

What’s a “Workation”? 

It was bound to happen: the Workation. Even during the height of Covid lockdowns, now a distant memory, travel was still possible.  Most companies have extended work-at-home measures in some form today. The urge to get away from home and endless video calls, visit friends and family in faraway places, and escape for a change of scenery is hard to ignore. 

With fast wifi everywhere you go, traveling to another place to log in and work is an obvious way to stay ahead of the burnout curve and become inspired and engaged again.

A true workation is a working vacation; leaving one’s city or country for a week or longer, and working fully remotely using the video conferencing and visual collaboration tools we now use every day.¹

The Facts

About 56% of us can technically be Digital Nomads; we have jobs that can be fully executed remotely with no discernable change in productivity.² At the same time, the war for talent is only heating up. The Great Resignation is still with us, and employers are still trying to find ways to boost morale and attract workers. 

Workations are so popular with Digital Nomad professionals that it’s already a selling point in the interview process; 85% of workers under forty want increased flexibility in a job, which includes borderless mobility.³

Protection from “Interruption Culture”

Workations are about “running to”; most work that demands creativity and out-of-the-box thinking improves with a new perspective, a change of backdrop, and sensory stimulation. ⁴ Creative workers can find inspiration, be exposed to new solutions and skills as well as have access to new markets and networking opportunities.  Workations are also about “running from”; the physical office and the home environment are all about constant interruptions, unplanned interactions, last-minute new tasks, and mini-projects that come with face time. These interruptions don’t replace planned tasks and deadlines but add to them. 

Knowing this, it’s clear why 93% of digital professionals feel more productive away from the physical office, and 82% report lower stress levels. ⁵

Remote workers are 20% more productive; some even report losing 3-4 hours per day of their most productive time with interruptions. ⁶

Interruptions also affect employee morale due to increased workload and lack of control over their schedules.⁷

Taking Workations Seriously

A Workcation business model case study: “Digital Nomads Madeira”: launched in 2021 on the beautiful Portuguese island to specifically attract the Northern European Workationer and backed by the Regional Government, “Startup Madeira” began as a pilot project. 
After a year it was so successful that the project, now titled “the Nomad Village”, will be ramped up and extended until at least 2024 ⁸ and other locations - Ponta do Sol, Funchal, Machico, Porto Santo, Porto Moniz, Santa Cruz, Santana, will be added to the overall offering. 
 
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Notes

Fiona Passantino⁠ is an executive leadership coach, speaker and trainer, helping professionals engage with their teams and communities and increase their visibility and impact in complex, international organizations, working with groups or individuals. See Executive Storylines for more. Fiona is a speaker, trainer, podcaster blogger, YouTuber and the author of the Comic Books for Executives series. She recently has a weekly radio show on Den Haag 92 FM on the Future of Work.