Published 13. March 2023 by Christian Lorey
Workation experience: Positive in every respect
Moving your workplace to your holiday destination? q.beyond AG has offered this option since 2022, which includes logineer employees working in Germany.
The two months of workation in Spain were a truly wonderful experience for my wife, our young daughter and me. Far away from the grey Hamburg winter, we managed to take our work-life balance to a whole new level. This is my short report on the new ways of combining work and family life and its positive side effects.
In 2022, our holding company q.beyond AG launched a new employee benefit - and logineer benefits from it too: Workation! This is a made-up word that describes a model that makes it possible to work abroad for up to three months a year, as long as your manager agrees. As part of this, our company works with a specialist service provider who takes care of legal issues, for example.
Two months of work and vacation on the coast of Spain
Both my wife and I had read a lot about Workation. However, we didn't know anyone in our direct vicinity who could tell us more about it. Despite this, we quickly realised that we wanted to try this experiment and decided to spend two months on a workation holiday in Spain.
The word "workation" is a combination of the words "work" and "vacation". In other words, to work where others spend their holidays. In this age of remote working, this is not really a problem as long as you have a stable internet connection at your holiday destination.
My wife is a professional coach and I work in SAP consulting. Since the pandemic, working from home and mobile working have become part of our daily routine. And with our daughter not yet of school age, there was no better time to try out this new opportunity for a better balance between work and family life.
A workation checklist: Things to think about in advance
- Approval from line manager
- Coordination and consultation with colleagues: Will working hours or availability change?
- Signing out from the kindergarten
- Check health insurance: Do we have health insurance for travelling abroad?
- Cancellation / break from sports club / gym etc.
- Care for house / apartment / mail: Who will pick up your mail and take care of household matters during this time?
- PC configuration for remote work: Is everything up to date?
- Does the work location abroad have a good WiFi / sufficient bandwidth?
A positive workation experience requires good preparation and logistics
But before we set off for Alicante in southern Spain on 1 October 2022, there was a lot to think about and organise: from A as in arrangements for working abroad to W as in WiFi at the destination. See our checklist in the box.
Workation with the whole family involves a bit of relocation. So we split up the journey: I set off by car with our belongings (luggage, work materials and equipment, toys) from Hamburg to our first Workation location in Monte Pego on the south-east coast of Spain. After driving almost 2,300 kilometres, staying overnight twice and listening to three audio books, I was ready to soak up the Spanish atmosphere. Checking into our finca was perfectly organised and went smoothly.
My wife and daughter arrived in Valencia by plane on the day of my arrival, about an hour's drive from our premises in the harbour city, where I picked them up by car. And then we were off to a wonderful time close to the beautiful Costa Blanca in the "Urbanisation Monte Pego"! Our finca was situated in the mountains offering fantastic views.
Taking the IT job to the holiday resort
We had selected accommodation with enough space for two workplaces, a guest room (we also had family visiting in between) and a pool.
During the working week, my wife and I split the work between us: She looked after our daughter from morning to afternoon, and I could concentrate on my work, while from late afternoon to evening it was my turn to look after the kid. The good thing about this arrangement: We were both able to do our jobs and still spend a lot of time with our daughter.
Flexible working hours allow Workation to work even with a small child
However, flexibility was needed when the workload was high: That is when the previously considered schedules were thrown overboard. This, of course, is only possible if both partners have a job with flexible working hours and organisation.
The time we organised for ourselves and the weekends were used for many excursions through beautiful Andalusia. Experiencing something like this as a family is very special! I was reminded of why I enjoy working for a modern, family-friendly employer.
In our first month of workation, we already visited great cities and coastal towns, including Valencia, Alicante, Pego, Dénia, Xábia, Orba and Ondara.
Reaching a new level of work-life balance
Being able to balance out my desk and projects, gather new impressions, learn a new language and talk to the locals, cook Spanish food myself and immerse myself in this culture: All of this was amazing! And the warm weather was also an advantage for a balanced mind.
The second month, November, took us further southwest to Zahara de los Atunes on the Atlantic coast. This small coastal town on the Costa de la Luz is famous for its tuna fishing. Here we lived in a very modern complex, in a terraced house: a huge contrast to the classic, more traditional life in Monte Pego, but one that we liked very much. This way we got to know two different Spanish ways of life, which we would not have experienced if we had stayed in a hotel.
Again, we took the opportunity to go on family excursions. We spent a lot of time at the beautiful Playa de Atlanterra beach, which is only a few kilometres away. And we visited Gibraltar, Marbella, Seville, Cádiz and Vejer de la Frontera, among other places. Then, at the end of November, my wife and daughter flew back to Hamburg via Jerez de la Frontera with a stopover in Madrid. It was my great pleasure travelling back by car in company with a good friend.
Workation experience: Room created for new ideas
My final conclusion: This workation experience has opened up many new perspectives for me. Among these are experiences that can be directly applied to my job and projects. Other positive side effects such as travelling, greater satisfaction, spending time with my family and even being adventurous have had a positive impact on me and helped me develop personally. I returned to my normal working life in Hamburg with a lot of renewed energy, and on particularly dull winter days I could always remember the beautiful images of the Spanish countryside.
Of course, it took a lot of self-organisation and discipline during the two months to do everyone justice. But for us, the advantages clearly outweighed the disadvantages.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the managers and colleagues at q.beyond and logineer who offered me this benefit and opened up this fantastic opportunity for us. Workation is an experience that I highly recommend to everyone!
Related links
- Shape your future at logineer: https://www.logineer.com/en/careers/
- Current Vacant Positions: https://jobs.logineer.com/job-offers.html