Workcation
The practice of working remotely from a leisure destination, combining professional responsibilities with time away from the usual work environment.
A workcation is a working arrangement in which an employee performs their normal professional duties from a leisure or travel destination rather than their usual office or home location — typically for a period of days to several weeks. The rise of remote and hybrid work has made workcations increasingly common and commercially mainstream, with many hotels, resorts, and destinations now marketing specifically to the workcation segment with dedicated packages including reliable Wi-Fi, workspace facilities, and flexible check-in arrangements.
Why it matters
Workcations introduce a range of organizational questions that travel policies written for traditional business travel were not designed to handle. Is the trip personal or business? Who pays for what? Does the organisation's duty of care obligation extend to personal destinations where an employee happens to be working? What are the tax implications if the destination is in a different jurisdiction? Are there visa or right-to-work considerations? Organizations without explicit workcation guidance create a compliance gap that generates one-off exception requests and inconsistent outcomes.
How it works in practice
In practice, workcations sit in a gray zone between personal travel and remote work. The employee's flights, accommodation, and meals at the destination are typically personal costs — the employer's obligation is to provide the same work tools and connectivity support they would at home, not to fund the trip. However, when a business trip is extended for personal days, the cost-sharing rules become more complex: is the incremental accommodation cost personal? What about the return flight if it is rescheduled to accommodate a longer stay?
The takeaway
Develop a clear, simple workcation policy that addresses the key questions explicitly: cost-sharing for extended-stay trips, expense eligibility during personal days, duty of care coverage, and any jurisdiction-specific tax or visa considerations. A policy that acknowledges workcations as a legitimate employee arrangement — with clear rules — is more effective than a blanket prohibition that employees will work around informally. Review the policy against HR and legal counsel given the rapid evolution of remote work regulations in many jurisdictions.