Workation Reconsidered: The Reality Behind the Benefit

Topic

Workation, a hybrid model combining work and vacation, has grown popular with rising workplace flexibility. However, beneath the attractive façade, employees face significant hidden burdens, collectively termed meta-work. My thesis explores these unseen cognitive and logistical efforts, examining how structured support, boundary management, and autonomy influence the workation experience, particularly in IT consultancy. By identifying distinct employee personas, I provide insights into effectively balancing organizational support with individual flexibility.

Relevance

Workation promises flexibility and enhanced employee satisfaction but often underestimates hidden complexities. For practitioners, understanding these challenges—such as proactive logistical arrangements and continuous boundary management—is crucial for realizing workation’s true potential. Misalignment between organizational expectations and employee experiences can lead to stress, reduced productivity, and dissatisfaction. Thus, addressing meta-work proactively ensures successful implementation of workation policies, directly benefiting employee well-being and organizational effectiveness in increasingly flexible work environments.

Results

The thesis confirms that employees engaging in workations face substantial hidden meta-work, involving extensive logistical planning, ongoing boundary management, and psychological tensions. It also reveals a paradox where increased autonomy simultaneously heightens self-management pressures and productivity expectations. Structured organizational support, while essential, must carefully balance clarity and flexibility. Additionally, three distinct employee personas (Structured Strategists, Adaptive Explorers, Collaborative Facilitators) emerged, each requiring tailored organizational strategies to manage their unique workation experiences effectively and optimize overall outcomes.

Implications for Practitioners

• Provide clear yet flexible policies and proactive logistical support to significantly reduce employee burdens.
• Recognize that rigid boundary-setting strategies alone can inadvertently heighten employee stress.
• Tailor workation offerings based on identified employee personas to ensure alignment of organizational resources with individual needs.
• Explicitly manage productivity expectations to alleviate intensified self-management pressures during workations.
• Foster continuous communication channels to promptly address emerging logistical and psychological challenges.

Methods

This thesis adopts a qualitative research design focusing on the IT consultancy sector. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with ten employees and one HR representative, achieving thematic saturation. Participants reflected on logistical preparations, boundary management, organizational support, and psychological experiences during their workations. Data analysis employed Gioia’s structured thematic approach, systematically coding and interpreting participant narratives. This methodological rigor enabled identification of distinct employee personas and offered nuanced insights into hidden meta-work efforts. Ethical considerations ensured confidentiality and transparency, maintaining the integrity of participants’ experiences.