Work­ation – On the Sense or Non­sense of a Trend

Finally, holidays are pos­sible again, what joy. When it comes to packing, however, it becomes clear that ideas differ: In addition to the laptop, his headset also ends up in the suitcase, while she packs hiking boots and bad­minton rackets. He wants to use the time to finally catch up on a few things, she dreams of relaxed weeks without having to think about online con­fe­rences. Or vice versa. The argument starts even before the holiday.

Holiday office. Work(vac)ation. Quietly and sil­ently, these word crea­tions have crept into our everyday lan­guage. Not long ago, they would have been seen as a con­tra­diction in terms — what did holiday and work have to do with each other? Now, after a year and a half of the pan­demic, the terms seem almost inter­woven.
But what sounds pro­mising to one person causes the other person to break out in a sweat — many a rela­ti­onship is put to the test by the now socially accep­table blending of private life and work. What do you mean, you’re taking your com­puter with you? I’m not the only one respon­sible for the children during the holidays! Or: We wanted to go hiking — how long will the meeting go on for? There is always potential for con­flict, regardless of whether you go on work­ation as a couple or as a family, and the dis­cussion about the sense or non­sense of this com­bi­nation of work and holiday is ine­vi­table.

What actually is work­ation? While for one person it might mean the oppor­tunity to spend the annual holiday with the family despite a heavy workload, for another it means the freedom to tem­po­r­arily swap the office work­place for a secluded mountain hut. But no matter how you interpret work­ation, the dis­cus­sions remain con­tro­versial. Because most people love one aspect of the new work option: calling the office in China and fifteen minutes later romping with the children in the pool, and yet some­times they reach their limits: lack of under­standing from their partner or simply not being able to really switch off. Which brings us to the next topic: Does it really make sense to combine work and private life so closely? What about the num­erous studies that prove that a sepa­ration of the two is advi­sable to prevent per­sonal overload?

Incre­asingly, future models of life and work are also being dis­cussed on a theo­re­tical level. The Archi­tecture Biennale in Venice, for example, is addressing the question: “How will we live tog­ether?” — alt­hough one could also ask more spe­ci­fi­cally: “How will we WORK tog­ether?”. Because the way we live tog­ether has an impact on the way we work tog­ether and vice versa. This is not just about defining working arran­ge­ments and cul­tures, but also in par­ti­cular about creating an envi­ronment that enables effective and creative work, in short: about creating new places of for working. Even though the pan­demic seems to have acce­le­rated this deve­lo­pment, the social phi­lo­sopher Fri­thjof Bergmann coined the term “New Work” as early as the 1970s, which stands for mostly alter­native forms of work. In the working world of the future, people should orient them­selves to “what they really, really want”. Nevert­heless, until now it was (somewhat abbre­viated) mainly free­lancers who bustled about in internet cafés all over the world with their laptops, made fun of or envied by many. In the future, it will most likely be pos­sible for a large part of the office-working popu­lation to work inde­pendently of a fixed work­place, at least tem­po­r­arily — pro­vided the indi­vidual regu­la­tions of the respective employer allow this.

In fact, in recent months tourism has dis­co­vered for itself what creative agencies understood a long time ago and what num­erous com­panies have also understood in recent years: that a posi­tively designed envi­ronment can not only inspire but also motivate. But how should (or can) these places be designed? In prin­ciple, any place is con­ceivable as a tem­porary refuge for work — whether a house by the sea, a remote mountain hut or a house in the city. But each indi­vidual needs a dif­ferent envi­ronment to be able to work. For some, head­phones and a sofa may be enough, but most people need more: a place to retreat to, a desk, good lighting, a beau­tiful view. Here, as with the choice of location, it is per­sonal habits and pre­fe­rences that matter most. Con­flicts often arise because one person doesn’t know what the other needs — and this applies to the ideas of a holiday, a work­ation and the equipment of the working envi­ronment.

Research shows that there are sui­table places for every type of work­ation, for retreat seekers as well as for couples, families or work teams. However, the sup­po­sedly best working envi­ronment is often limited to a desk in the corner of the living room and a reasonable WIFI con­nection. To meet the trend, accom­mo­dation would have to go one step further and create an envi­ronment that meets the needs of at least one target group. Only then could work­ation accom­mo­dation be taken seriously as such – and as is necessary with the infla­tionary “art hotels”, one would not have to first check very closely to see whether the accom­mo­dation really does do justice to the leit­motif. And if the envi­ronment is really, really attuned to all needs, the balancing act between work and leisure on holiday is sure to succeed.

Text: Tina Barankay, July 2021

About the author: Tina Barankay has been com­bining her passion for aes­thetics and design with her pro­fes­sional acti­vities for many years, among others as an editor for the archi­tecture magazine DETAIL. As a free­lance jour­nalist and con­sultant, she publishes articles, pro­duces publi­ca­tions and designs com­mu­ni­cation con­cepts in the fields of archi­tecture, interior design and design.