Interested in more careers-related content? Check out our new weekly Work Life newsletter. Sent every Monday afternoon.
When Alice Wu’s significant other had to travel to Las Vegas for a five-day business trip, the St. Catharines, Ont.-based PR associate, who usually works from her home, leapt at the chance to join her partner and work out of their hotel room.
Ms. Wu would start her shift at 6 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. with the time zone difference giving her three extra hours in the afternoon, which she would spend walking the Las Vegas Strip, hitting the pool and attending a Cirque du Soleil show.
“More than anything it was about getting time to myself,” she says. “We have two kids at home and in the last nine years I’ve had maybe a combined total of eight or 10 days to myself. And since my partner was working anyways, I wasn’t under any impression to make plans with him. It was literally, ‘Sure, I need to work but after my shift, I will only be … responsible for myself.”
This type of working approach, which involves working while also enjoying some time away, is often referred to as a workcation and it is becoming a priority when picking a job.
A 2023 study from the Montreal-based FlightHub travel agency showed 47 per cent of Canadians cited a company’s policy on workcations as a key influence in their choice of employer. That number jumps to 63 per cent among Millennials. Almost half of this cohort have seriously considered combining work and travel abroad.
“This phenomenon has clearly been exacerbated by the work-from-home trend during the pandemic,” says Jim Stanford, an economist and director at the Centre for Future Work. “There are new opportunities to work remotely and this idea of a workcation is one of them.”
But, while the flexibility to work from anywhere – including while on vacation – has been linked to greater employee morale and provides an often needed change of scenery for remote workers such as Ms. Wu, experts caution that workcations can also be detrimental to work-life balance, productivity and employee wellness.
‘A further blurring of the line’
Mr. Stanford deems workcations to be problematic as they constitute “a further blurring of the line between work and the rest of your life.”
“A big downside of the workcation phenomenon is facilitating the expectation that employers can tap you on the shoulder while you’re on your off time,” he says.
Though Ms. Wu considers the flexibility to work from anywhere to be a perk as the change of scenery makes her more productive, she acknowledges the risk that workcations pose to work-life balance.
“I feel that workcations can definitely complicate employer expectations,” she says, noting specifically that employers may “start to ask their teams for little extras attached to the perk of a workcation – like staying later or checking Slack while away.”
Mr. Stanford says “if you’re in a workplace where the workcation is popular, your employer could predictably say ‘I let you be a sightseer while you’re working so now that you’re actually on vacation, you should be able to do some work.’”
Because of the risks of burnout as well as reduced productivity, Ottawa-based digital marketing agency seoplus+ advises its employees, many of whom work remotely, against taking a workcation.
“Our logic is that when you’re working during vacations, you get the worst of both worlds instead of the best,” says Amanda Stephens, seoplus+’s vice-president of operations.
Ms. Stephens cites an example of being on vacation with your friends. “You are chained to a desk on poor hotel WiFi while they’re off to explore the local town,” she says. “Sure, you can join them after business hours, but you’ll have serious FOMO in the meantime.”
She further points out that, because workcations have established that employees can work on vacation, it sets the precedent that it should be something you do. “Imagine seeing your colleague at a virtual client meeting sitting at the beach,” she says. “The next time you’re at the beach, are you then going to feel guilty for not working?”
Practical work implications
Workcations also have practical implications for the workplace. In the case of Ms. Wu, she experienced a work hiccup when she was in transit during a client call.
“Luckily, the client is easy to work with and had no issues when I asked to move the call one day later,” she says. “I explained that I didn’t trust that WiFi on a bus was strong enough to handle a Zoom call.”
Ms. Stephens acknowledges that employees who work while on vacation often find themselves at the mercy of unstable WiFi networks. Hotel WiFi is often known to be spotty, which can affect productivity, or unsecure, which can more severely affect privacy.
This implication was recently brought to the surface as a recent survey of 2,000 American workers by communications firm Movchan Agency found 17 per cent of workers reported accidentally leaking classified documents as a result of working on hotel WiFi while on vacation.
‘Don’t try to mix the two’
Although Ms. Wu has never had a problem with this blurring of the lines on her workcations, she says she is not opposed to having a conversation with her employer to clarify their expectations of her.
Otherwise, there could be serious concerns for productivity and cause for burnout. “People often overlook this,” Ms. Stephens says. “You won’t feel recharged and restored. You feel like you didn’t get a break – because you didn’t – which can create burnout and frustration.
This potential for burnout, Ms. Stephens adds, is why seoplus+ advises employees to “give your maximum work time and enjoy your maximum personal time. Don’t try to mix the two.”
