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Spacent team · Aug 19th 2022

What is a “hybrid holiday” and why is it important?

It’s the beginning of August and the busiest holiday season is starting to be behind us. It is safe to say that “back to the office” looks very different today – right this moment you might still be sitting on a terrace in Spain, tuned in on your Microsoft Teams and wearing a tidier shirt.

Talleres Palermo terrace

Talleres Palermo in Canary Islands

Virgin Media O2 recently conducted a survey revealing that almost a third (27%) of those surveyed are planning to work remotely from Europe this year. Just over three-quarters (76%) of those are considering a hybrid holiday. Hybrid holiday means adding remote working days around their annual leave to extend their time away.
 
Hybrid holiday is a phenomenon emerging from the newly found flexibility to work from anywhere. For the customers and colleagues on the other side of the screen the setup is not much different to a regular working from home setup but can make a big difference for employees arranging their work around their life more conveniently.
 
Let’s look into the pros and cons of hybrid holiday:
  • Engagement and motivation – Stepping out of the routines lets your employees recharge which contributes to the general wellbeing. Remote work has resulted in a more isolated working environment for many and for them to bring their best self to work, change of scenery might be the key.
  • Work-life balance – in The Virgin Media O2 survey, 37 % say hybrid holidaying will make them more productive, but even more significant factor seems to be the search for a better work-life balance (58 % of the surveyed). This again, pays off in the employee engagement and commitment.
  • More flexibility to parents with school holidays – Childcare can be hard to arrange with children’s long school holidays and parents might have to have their vacations on different times to cover the summer period. With the ability to combine a mutual holiday with a little bit of hybrid holiday will give more flexibility in arranging family trips and enable spending more time with loved ones.

It’s not all hybrid holiday sunshine and rainbows though, when lines are blurred between work and leisure. Employees might struggle to unwind and stop the work, when it’s time to have the time off. This might increase burnout and result in a culture where one must be present or available online all the time. It’s important that the employers check-in with their employees and make sure they work in a healthy way, taking the breaks that they need.

Distractions will most likely be forever present on a holiday trip, whether working or not. Employees might not be able to focus and the working environment might not be very ergonomic, quiet or have a steady wifi. It can be hard for employees to work to the best of their capabilities, which effects negatively on the quality of work.

Hybrid work policies are eventually shaped by the people, and the employer can support this freedom (and hybrid holidays) for example with providing professional coworking spaces, anywhere, anytime. With Spacent Coworking Pass, you can tune in from your trip to Athens (see Impact Hub location) or Canary Islands (see Talleres Palermo location)!

With Spacent, we offer every employer a new way to arrange workspace so that the employees can plan their work around their lives, not the other way around.