Soumya Bhattacharya is a novelist, journalist and literary critic
July 14, 2023
The word “workation” (work + vacation) has already entered into common parlance. Last year the British company Hostelworld, which connects travellers, predicted that the term WFH (working from home) will cede ground to WFA (working from anywhere). In a survey the firm conducted, 84 per cent of the respondents said WFA will replace WFH, fuelled by people’s keenness to combine work with travel.
I am writing this sitting on a bench at Vancouver’s Kitsilano beach, looking up from my laptop screen from time to time to gaze at the sea. The shimmering water is a variegated shade of blue, rippled with green in the far distance. The sky is azure, wispy white clouds scudding across it. The seagulls dip and rise, a constant chorus of squawking mingling with the sound of the lapping of the water. White yachts dot the blue in the far distance.
The ocean is ringed with mountains on the peaks of which the snow has not yet melted even in the warmth of summer. There’s a vast, sloping lawn full of benches such as the one on which I sit writing.
Ever since I arrived in Vancouver more than a month ago, it has been like this. My daughter has kitted out a corner of the living room of the apartment in which we stay with a comfortable, padded chair and a desk. I work there every day. But I also work sitting on a garden chair on the balcony, in full view of the lush greenery in the foreground and the mountains in the background. On occasion, I take my laptop to the beach.
WFA will replace WFH, fuelled by people’s keenness to combine work with travel
Ever since I stopped going into an office, I learned to wholeheartedly love WFH. Now, I am embracing the joys of WFA.
In Vancouver, I have been writing, teaching, giving talks, hosting my podcast. In short, I have been doing everything I do when I am at home in Delhi – only in a far more spectacular and salubrious setting.
I do have a fixed schedule. If there is, however, a concert to go to, an outing to enjoy or a day-long trip planned to one of the many beautiful destinations within reasonable distance, I am flexible. I take the day off. Regardless of what day of the week it is. I make up for it the next day. Work gets done. Work gets more than done.
In Vancouver, my productivity (that wretched word corporate management types – who have been wiped out from my life now – love to use) has actually increased. I know I have to do this to pay the bills but there is a special intellectual charge to working over here – a novelty, a zing, a thrum of excitement.
I go to my desk (or garden chair) with a sense of energy and purpose that is not always the case at home. The setting is transformative. It may sound like a cliche, but it is true. I can vouch for it. The thrill of WFA is unmatched.
I am grateful that my line of work allows me to enjoy the privilege of being able to work from anywhere. Not everyone is as lucky. A manager in a steel plant, for instance, or a surgeon or a plumber or a carpenter needs to be on site to get his or her job done. But for professionals who have the professional and financial means to WFA, this is increasingly what the future of work will be like.
As many as 86 per cent of Gen Z and 80 per cent of millennials said they would switch jobs for employers who would let them work from anywhere. “[Young people] want to explore, connect, meet new people, and still do the work they love and advance in their career,” Hostelworld’s Jody Jordan told digital news site Refinery29.
It is not only young people. A 2021 survey by Bloomberg found that 39 per cent of respondents would consider quitting if they were denied the opportunity to work remotely. The evidence was even more overwhelming in a study the same year by EY, the accounting firm, which polled 16,000 employees across 16 countries. It revealed that nine in 10 workers wanted flexibility in when and where they worked.
Already, many professionals are turning down jobs that do not offer at least a hybrid model that twins WFH with being in the office in person. A March 2023 Pew Research Centre study revealed that 35 per cent of workers who have jobs that can be done remotely are working from home all of the time. Or at least not going into the office at all: the survey did not make a distinction between WFH and WFA.
The workation, steadily increasing in popularity, is here to stay. One survey in the US found that two thirds of Americans went on a workation to “recharge their mental and emotional batteries”. Among those who went, 86 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that a workation heightened their productivity. For the independent professional (a full-time writer, in my case), the workation is a luxury and an escape I confer upon myself. I revel in it.
The pandemic taught us to recalibrate our lives. It clarified many things. Remote working is one of the most fundamental, sociocultural trends it has engendered. In those terrible years, we learned what was truly important to us. We learnt how precious a gift life really is. And how important it is to enjoy it, to live it on one’s own terms.
Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
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Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
