Hello Remote Working & Workations. Goodbye Antiquated Work Practices.

What to do when the workers don’t want to be in work? The Covid 19 pandemic will be studied for numerous years going forward. Never in recent memory has something so profound affected the entire population of the world and the social fabric and economies within. Mental and physical health, societal configurations, working patterns, environmental issues - you name it, it has been touched. When the statisticians and psychologists have done their work, companies will interrogate the data and see what lessons can be learned from the ‘experience’ of Covid. Financially you would doubt the World could afford another pandemic but of course, the real effects are yet to be known. Have car emissions plummeted due to less commuting? Have electricity costs risen due to more usage domestically? What happens to the low paid migrant workers? Have job opportunities decreased? Has far right nationalism increased? Has environment improved due to lack of air travel? Are staycations now an annual calendar event? Anecdotal stories of people in their 30’s and 40’s taking a hard look at their Work/Life balance abound. Some people have decided simply not to work but others have analysed their behaviours and aspirations, accepting that a working life is both a necessity and perhaps something that defines them. Unless you win the lottery chances are that you will be required to work to earn money. Simple. But where you work is the key. Can you do your work from home….or Guatemala? Can you enjoy the stimulus of a new environment while also paying the bills? I believe the answer is yes and is why I firmly believe Workations can solve the growing friction between those who want to work from home and the Businesses who want their employees to be in the office. Lets be clear – the guy who is bluffing at home is the guy who will be bluffing in work. Just because they are at a desk in your office does not mean they are working productively. Chances are the person working from home is balancing their life, getting more from their existence and yet doing more hours than they would be in the office. The commute to a workplace (besides the pollution) is a tremendous waste of personal time and typically unpaid. Whether you spend 1 hour each way on a commute or 3 hours each way, there are only so many podcasts, songs and audiobooks you can listen to before you realise a huge proportion of your week is sat doing nothing. Travel to a workplace simply because the boss wants you to be in there. We are in 2021 and these Victorian working ideals belong precisely in that era. You either trust the person you have employed or you don’t. It really is that basic. Businesses need to become flexible. End of. The competitors and head hunters are all alive to that fact. New employees are getting new deals, the business needs to show the employee that they are simply not a number on the end of a wage slip, a slave to the end product of glorious profit. It’s a whole new world out there and the opportunity is there to reset our bad habits which include the workplace, social gatherings and the environment. In the modern world we are travelling at 100 mph at all times. Everything is done at speed as our work practices, news, games, health and family life are threw into a wirling mass of 'must dos'. The modern rat race to waste precious time travelling to a building where the same job could be done from another location week in, week out, simply does not make sense on any level in this day and age. We have rightly moved on from the original Victorian concept of working in a hive. Workplaces need to evolve and businesses need to evolve. If there is any benefit from the pandemic to be had it is simply that the world of employees have woken from their slumber and now can influence the outdated practices of the far removed Director from their personal lives. Commute time is personal time, not company time. When we all realise that then the veils will drop from our eyes and the employee can work but also recover the most valuable thing that they can have - time. photo credit: The Consumer Watch Foundation

Workation In Ireland - Galway City

The West of Ireland (or the Whesht as they pronounce it there) has always held a long tug of the heartstrings for myself.  It conjures images of the Old Ireland, the mythical adventures of Lugh and the Battle of Moytura, the Wild Atlantic ocean crashing against the cliffs, the hardships of the famine era and the land league, the little stone walls and cottages, the French and Wolfe Tone in Killala, the remoteness of island life in Inisturk, Croagh Patrick and Catholic pilgrimages to Knock, Bundoran summer rite of passage and the beauty of Clifden.   And of course there was the smell of freshly stacked turf, the little packed pub with traditional music playing in the corner and a fire smoking in the other. A a pint of the black stuff settled on the dark mahogany bar counter where a faded photo of the Donegal 1983 Ulster winning football team hung crookedly between postcards from America and various paper currencies from around the Globe.  The sting in the eyes from the foggy haze of cigar smoke and tiptoeing around the bathrooms from what seemed the previous century of remodelling.

Padraig Pearse once dubbed it the real Ireland, the last bastion of the Irish people, where you could go to get a sense of what the Irish people where before the settlement of the Pale.  While infrastructure in Ireland still has a way to go, it is infinitely better than what it was 20 years ago, and this means Galway is a fairly well connected city, from whichever part of Ireland you choose to travel from.  Bear in mind any journey in Ireland which last longer than one hour is seemingly a long journey.  The tales from American and Canadian cousins of 5 hour jaunts on a Saturday morning are greeted with incredulity and questions of sanity.   

I fancied a few days of the 'Whest' where I didn't have to move around too much and could base myself somewhere that the evenings could be spent productively and with enlightenment, meet a few characters and sample the local buzz.  Galway City seemed perfect.   

I've been to Galway before of course, but exclusively on Stag Dos where the craic was fierce but the memories hazy.  The nightlife in the city is fabulous from the point of view of energy, good restaurants and Irish pubs. Music is around every corner in the city centre and you can feel the essence of the tones gives the vibe of friendliness and welcoming which few cities around the world are able to produce.  You will feel safe in Galway, that no one is out to get you, but like any other place keep your wits about you.  Live music, good company, great drinks, there is a lot to love about Galway.

We stayed in Oranmore which is slightly outside the city. This is easier for kids as is away from the noise and bustle and If I was doing it again I would stay closer to the beach in Salthill so that we could avail of the long evening promenade walks and succession of little sandy strands that are peppered between the rock formations.  The beaches were sandy and combed, with clear water and no jetsam of flotsam. Kids loved them.  This would also mean availing of the walking distance between the strand and the restaurants. 

In my haste I made the cardinal error of not checking the hotel wifi system - to say I was not impressed was an understatement. I enjoyed the hotel lodge with its pool, saunas and gym. The restaurant food was some of the best we had in Galway. But the wifi was poor. So poor.  It was provided with boosters in the corridors, such as you would see in country houses in areas of poor internet infrastructure.  In short the only signal that could be found was if you sat beside the bedroom door, shouldering it in the small bedroom entrance which felt like Harry Potter under the stairs.  

The signal in the hotel lobby was fluctuating from poor to ok, which was suitable for emails and brief minor downloads, but totally inadequate for a 'live' system.  My fault for not checking. I got through it, the 4G for Webcalls was required but it felt more like stumbling rather than enjoying this element of the Workation. 

Oranmore Village had a number of good restaurants such as the Basilico Italian Restaurant and the Amorica.  We enjoyed the McDonaghs Thatched Pub on the Sraid Mór with nice staff and good Guinness. There is a nice walk out to the castle in the evenings and we were bemused at whoever designed the Tesco carpark in the town - surely a more contrary exercise in car park management has never been taken! Oranmore feels like a village that is being primed for pushing plush houses through planning so watch this space. 

Still it was hard to get the Galway Shawl song out of our heads: 'In Oranmore, in the county Galway, one pleasant evening, in the month of May........'.  Traumatising for the children. On repeat. Ad nauseum.

Day trips for the kids to Loughwell Farm took 20 mins, Spiddel same, Clifden a bit more of a hike but worth it. Save that trip for early evening when you have a bit more time to travel - certainly not a lunchtime excursion.

So all in all for a week, Galway City was thus:

Things to see and do at lunchtime hour: 7/10

Evening Bar entertainment: 9/10

Evening lunch entertainment: 9/10

Culture: 9/10

Theatres: 6/10

Art: 8/10

Friendly: 9/10

Beaches: 8/10

Weather: 5/10

Kids entertainment: 6/10

Natural Beauty: 8/10

Workation Location: 7/10

Workation - a change is as good as a rest

                    If Covid and lockdowns have proven anything, its that not all human minds are not built to enjoy repetitiveness and drudgery.  I can only assume those who crave the comfort of that office environment where Susan brings in the birthday buns and Toby tells the weekend gossip around the canteen table, are soothed by the constant lack of tumult in the organisation of their lives.  Wake - Commute - Work - Commute - Prepare - Sleep.  Are they the lucky ones? Perhaps. They are oblivious to the metronome of lost opportunity, of so much to see and so little time to with which to see it.

Then there are the Workationers.  Those who have said to themselves 'No More'.  No more trudging commute, no more cubicles, no more buses, trains and highways.  No more bad coffee, no more gridlock, no more staring at the 'still to be finished' back garden paradise.  They target release from the mundane and discipline themselves to the pursuit of new experiences, new friends and new adventures.

Be honest, who wouldn't want to look out on the beach in Koh Phi Phi rather than a block of flats. Who wouldn't want to go for a stroll along the crescent beach at lunchtime with a pineapple rather than add boiling water to the Pot Noodle in the cafeteria?  Who wouldn't want to know that a new trip and excursion awaits every evening? That new acquaintances await on those trips? That an experience they haven't had before lies at the setting of every sun?

Workations are the new way of travel opportunity. They need to be planned and paid for like anything else but they escape the monotony of repeat views, they encourage the spirt, they perk the mind and attract the zest for life we all search for.   Yes we all dream of globetrotting freedom, where the beach cocktails are free and the ocean views aplenty., nthing but the palm trees at our rear and the golden sand under our feet.  Beautiful traditional music in the background and sun kissed mountains full of nature.   Realistically this will not happen for most people.  There are always commitments, always bills to pay and expectations assumed.   Workations give people the freedom to explore while they earn, experience living in a different part of the world full in the knowledge they will return to the fold.   

It is precisely the realisation that the moment is fleeting in the overall scheme of things, that the situation is finite and will ultimately end, drives the enjoyment of the occasion and encourages the seeking out of an adventure to enhance and stimulate the mind and body.

There are many way to do this and hopefully you will come on this exploration with me.

Lets go!

PP