Working Vacations
Many of us take vacations to get away from work, but as a telecommuter you may choose to take your work with you on some types of vacations. This tends to work best on vacations where you are visiting someone, rather than going to a remote location where you don’t know anyone.
When I was an office worker and wanted to visit family in another state, I would use vacation time to do so. As a telecommuter, I can take the same trip (or longer), without such a restriction. As long as I bring my laptop and cell phone and have access to a high speed internet connection, I am equally capable of doing my job from away as I am from home. It may not be as good as having all day and night to visit with family, but working during the day and spending time in the evening and weekends is a lot better than simply talking to them over the phone. Should I choose to go for a month or more, that’s fine too. Since I’m simply moving my base of operations, I don’t need to take any time off at all. Telecommuting basically gives me the flexibility to “live” in different locations throughout the year. With the ability to take longer trips, spending every waking minute with those I’m visiting is much less a priority.
Using this technique you can reduce, or eliminate your need to use vacation time. That means you can either take working vacations more often, or that you’ll have more time available to take a true vacation where you leave work completely behind. By living at your destination, there’s little reason to limit the length of a visit as long as you don’t outstay your welcome.
