Don't Get Scammed into Taking a Workcation!

True Vacations Never Require ANY Office Interaction

Workcations are "fools gold" for naïve Wage Slaves!

Elaine's Workcation Nightmare A former co-worker of mine, 63-year-old Elaine, had her longstanding vacation to visit her very elderly mother on the East Coast, morph unsuspectedly into the workcation from hell. We both had ironically started at a law firm that claimed to protect workers’ rights according to their impressively lofty mission statement.

Yet, in practice, this unscrupulous law firm was perhaps the most flagrantly violative abuser of workers’ rights I ever worked for in my nearly 30-year career. Our new supervisor, Melani, took advantage of Elaine’s good nature and pressured Elaine into taking her laptop back east to “source a few candidates” so we could meet our (outrageous) recruitment quota per the company owner, Jennifer, a woman who never met a labor law that she didn’t subvert or pervert for pure carnal thrills.

I cautioned Elaine that “she was doing too much” and she would be on the hook for anything she pledged to do - even if it fell through the cracks due to circumstances out of her control. Good intentions mean nothing to bosses like Jennifer or sycophants like Melani.

Immediately, chaos ensued on Elaine’s way to the airport on day 1 of her trip! After feeling pressure from Jennifer, Melani left a barrage of hateful emails and voicemails on Elaine’s personal (not business) mobile to respond “at once”. Elaine tried to connect to the airport Wi-Fi unsuccessfully during a layover to work but figured she would make up for the lost time when she arrived at her destination and got settled. When Elaine finally landed on the East Coast and obtained reception, she was flabbergasted by Melani’s hostile messages, subsequently burst into tears, and thought she was going to get fired on her vacation for not answering the abusive but “time-sensitive” messages promptly. Despite being in spitting distance of retirement age, Elaine HAD to work because her husband suddenly found himself out of a job due to an unexpected downsizing. Elaine knew it was a near miracle for a woman of her age to land a decent-paying corporate gig in Century City, Los Angeles, so she reasoned it was preferable to deal with verbal and emotional abuse than to plow through their meager savings for a likely protracted job hunt. While Elaine was overly stressed in trying to balance the demands of her new job and spending time with her 98-year-old mother, it was all for naught. Elaine’s mother resented her for putting work over spending quality time together - time that was months in the making. In spite of Elaine working assiduously every spare moment she got and accomplishing some goals; when Elaine was unable to produce results on her vacation, Melani was quick to shamelessly throw Elaine under the bus to Jennifer at the first opportunity she had. Through the rest of Elaine’s “vacation”, it never felt like she left the office, as she was getting scolded, marginalized, and chastised like the rest of the department in daily Zoom calls, email threads, and group Slack messages. Clearly, Elaine was on vacation in name only! Elaine returned from her “vacation” frazzled, stressed, and embittered for the rest of her tenure at the law firm. Less than a year later from her start date, Elaine and I were laid off as the law firm decided to rebrand its business model. Before Elaine could capitalize on her new free time and book another trip to see her precious mom, Elaine’s mother sadly died. The last memories they shared on this planet - were tainted by Elaine’s deference in serving a ruthless, unappreciative Employer Overlord, who couldn’t care less.

What is a Workcation?

A “workcation” is where an employee can work remotely from a vacation locale, such as a rental, hotel, or a 2nd residence. According to Expedia’s annual Vacation Deprivation report (great title) from February 2022, the following results are a sobering REALITY CHECK.

Don't fall for the Workcation trap!

”78% of Americans aim to feel ‘unproductive’ during a holiday. Still, 50% bring their laptops and 41% dial into Zoom calls.” The survey went on to mention, ”61% of respondents said they didn’t consider trips which combined work and play to be proper holidays.” It’s easy to glean from this data that many people still value work-free vacations, but struggle to make them a reality.

Beware of the hidden landmines when you agree to a Workcation! It could blow up in your face.

Other Landmines To Navigate - Besides Domineering Bosses

1) Equity. Those with location-specific jobs such as cashiers, forklift operators, stock clerks, etc. can’t take workcations. Such jobs simply demand the presence of said workers to be performed. This will broaden the division in the workplace between elite and blue-collar or service workers within the same company.

2) No separation or freedom from the job. A recent study from Ceridian reports that a staggering 47% of a sample of 2,000 workers from the USA, UK, and Australia - COULD NOT fully disconnect from their jobs while vacationing without suffering repercussions. Apparently, they felt it was better to have a forced workcation or vacation with strings attached than none at all. Top reasons that interfered with restful vacations included 17% citing “Too busy to disconnect” and another 15% claiming “There’s nobody to cover”. This sounds like a class action labor lawsuit to me!

Similar research from JobSage discovered that nearly half of all respondents had only opted for a workcation instead of a “tried & true” vacation because they COULDN’T take time off. The workers who participated in the study also likely felt pressured not to utilize their vacation time as they wished, so they too reasoned a workcation was better than none at all.

3) Loss of therapeutic benefits. It’s been well-known for years about the myriad of health benefits to one’s cardiovascular, digestive, and immune systems when workers take semi-regular, sustained, and COMPLETE breaks from work. Such true vacations where Wage Slaves can totally immerse themselves in activities that tickle their fancies, also serve emotional benefits as a “stress reset”. These “stress resets” rejuvenate Wage Slaves to perform better upon their return to the Corporate Plantation. However, short-sided Employer Overlords can’t see that.

4) Liabilities. With the rise of workcations being such a new phenomenon, there will undoubtedly be issues arising around complex issues around compliance with local labor laws, taxes, and insurance - just to name a few. What happens if you slip and fall in your plum chalet in the Alps? If a workcation Wage Slave makes a mint off such a lawsuit, will you have to sign a waiver or release to even be considered for a future workcation? Maybe, smaller companies will eschew the practice altogether? It’s a new field to make more ambulance chasers rich.

5) Familial Conflict. Blending a workcation mindset with other family members with a strict leisure mentality is a surefire recipe for conflict. You still have to put in your 8 hours, whether in Paris, TX or Paris, France, and often those 8 hours will likely conflict with local family excursions. Ergo, while you may technically be in a vacation setting with your family are you really on vacation with your family.

Part of the allure of a vacation is the abandonment of having to be somewhere I don’t want to be doing things I really don’t want to do. You lose that luxury on a workcation. Large chunks of your day are spoken for.

Sleeping in, staying up late to watch a “Bar Rescue” marathon, a 3 pm coffee on your poolside balcony, or exploring a lost castle that you happen to come across on a glorious nature walk are all perks you will forgo at some point.

The fact is…your family will have to make new memories without you! Though you were on the same trip, you and Cousin Inid back in Tallahassee will only experience these familial joys through pictures and stories.

Workcations CAN Be Good - Under The Right Circumstances

In environments where unscrupulous Employer Overlords don’t try to covertly substitute workcations for traditional vacations or pressure Wage Slaves into not taking their PTO (Paid Time Off) for lengthy vacations, it can be nice to work remotely from an exotic setting and enjoy the spoils of exploring the delicacies and novelties of a new locale on the corporate credit card.

If the Employer Overlord respects boundaries and the Wage Slave remains sufficiently productive, such an arrangement can be fulfilling for the worker and help employee retention without increasing the labor budget for promotions.

Conclusion

Under limited circumstances where an employee desires a workcation and if the employer respects boundaries and labor laws, it could be a fruitful arrangement. Nonetheless, workcations can be manipulated by imperious Employer Overlords to be a substitute for proper PTO, vacation, or annual leave policies. In those cases, workcations can be “fool’s gold” by leading to overwork and more overall job dissatisfaction.

Wage Slaves still need dedicated and sufficient holiday allowances to entirely unplug from the Employer Plantation, so they can maintain their emotional sanity and physical fortitude to cope with the rat race grind that the 99% of us must endure on a daily basis! Working on vacation defeats the purpose of taking one!!!

There's nothing rejuvenating about a Workcation!