It's a great idea to unplug completely from work sometimes, remove yourself from home and reboot your mind. (This is an excerpt from our Gastronomad newsletter.)

Everyone knows vacations are good, healthy and necessary.

So why are workations so controversial?

A workcation is like a vacation, but with two differences: 1) you're working the whole time; and 2) you're not taking time off — those days are counted as work days, not vacation days.

The workation concept triggers a general contempt on social media. An extremely non-scientific, non-representative poll on my Twitter account showed that fewer than one-third love the idea and the rest either hate it or aren't sure.

Workation is a slang neologism in existence for more than 150 years. It came into popular use especially in the 40s, and again in the late 70s and early 80s, returning now in a post-pandemic, remote work, digital nomad context.

In the past, workation meant working while you were supposed to be vacationing. Now it means working in a place and context of a vacation, but actually working and getting paid to work. In other words, it used to mean working while you were supposed to be vacationing. But now it means working while you’re supposed to be working, but in a nice place.

There's a big difference: In the old meaning, you were using your time off to work without pay. In the new meaning, it means you're living temporarily as a digital nomad — getting your normal pay, not using vacation days and simply moving your “office” to the location of your choice.

As I explained in my book, Gastronomad:

"Years ago, while living on the Greek island of Crete, I discovered a really nice restaurant with an amazing view of the sea. So I decided to eat, drink some coffee and work there for the rest of the afternoon. After a while, I struck up a conversation with a couple at a table nearby. They were Germans on holiday and confessed that they assumed I was one of those workaholic Americans they heard about who can’t even take time off during a vacation. There I was in this beautiful place, slaving away. Pathetic!

But then I explained: I wasn’t on vacation at all. That day was an ordinary work day for me.

It’s not that I’m bad at taking vacations. I’m just good at choosing an office."

That's the key fact about workations. It's not about what you do during your vacation — you still get your normal vacation time. It's about what you do while you're working.

The covid pandemic drove a new wave of remote work, which for most means working in a home office instead of an office office.

I'm here to tell you that not only do remote, home-office workers need vacations, they also need workations — and are in a better position to take them.

It's psychologically unhealthy for many people to live and work in the same house and rarely leave — or just leave once or twice a year only for their paid vacations.

While on workation, you're spending your work hours in a new and presumably better environment, with new and better food, new and better weather. After hours, during weekends and other time off, you're on vacation. Close your laptop, and the mini vacation begins.

Even during the workday, you can take a 20 minute break and jump in the sea.

This picture is me on a workation in Monterosso, Italy — one of the five villages that make up the Cinque Terre. It was a regular work day for me. Except Italian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner; Italian coffee; a sunny beautiful location to work at; dips in the Mediterranean every couple of hours; and a full-blown vacation after hours and on the weekends.

A workation is more like work when it comes to getting paid. But it's more like a vacation when it comes to your state of mind.

Many employees who couldn't take workations before because their boss demanded butts in chairs at work now can because of the new acceptability of remote work. Nearly everyone with permission to work remotely can take workations whenever they choose.

One silver lining of this awful pandemic is the remote work trend. Take full advantage by experimenting with a workation. Who knows? You just might like it so much you'll want to sell your house and do it full time. - Mike