My wife and I have been considering doing a "work from anywhere" exchange for a few weeks next year. This means that we could work from somewhere in Europe (her work is limited, mine is not) for a couple weeks, without having to burn holidays. It isn't an ideal holiday of course, but it might still be worth it if we work a week and take a week, for instance for the winter holiday week we have next year.
This is still very much up in the air, but I think it might be a suitable compromise for going on a holiday, as we will kind of be able to offset the cost by working at the same time. I am not exactly sure how it would go with Smallsteps though, as we would still be working throughout the day, but perhaps I would be able to split my day a little and arrange my hours so I could spend time with her, perhaps splashing in a pool somewhere warm.
While the perk of being able to work from abroad has been in place for a while at my company and many people have taken advantage, I myself haven't really considered it that closely. However, I think that since the opportunity is there, we might as well use it to see how it goes and whether it is manageable. Now that Smallsteps is a little older at least, she might be able to handle it better, and while we are working, she could read, or listen to an audiobook (a new thing she has been introduced to recently and is enjoying a lot), or do some other kinds of activities while we work.
She'd still have her classwork to do also.
I had a quick look during the day at some possible destinations, but it is a little hard, as it has to be in Europe for my wife's work policy, but it would also have to be warm. This sets some limitations as it would also have to be by the end of April, which means that few places are going to be warm enough. It pretty much means somewhere in the Canary Islands.
Which isn't a bad option with a child in tow.
I floated this idea with my wife tonight, as we have loosely talked about it before, and she is of course keen to get out of Finland and somewhere warm. I also said to her that if we do this, we wouldn't be travelling in the summer, and instead be doing what we did this year and stay at home and do some day trips within Finland.
As much as I'd like to travel wherever and whenever we wanted, unless we win the lottery, that isn't going to happen. And since we still have a lot of things waiting to do for the house, we have to weigh up the opportunity cost of travelling, and renovating, and the benefits we get from each. There are obvious financial and benefits to improving our home, but there are also mental health benefits from getting away from the home a bit too.
A lot of people want to work from home, or keep working from home as the case may be, but I don't actually like working from home most of the time. It is fine when it is convenient to do so, where for instance, we have tight schedules in the afternoon or something, but otherwise, the office is a far better option for me. But, if I could spend a week or two working with a sea view, followed by a nice dinner and a glass of wine with my family somewhere a bit exotic, well, I can manage that.
While we might not end up being able to do this, they say that planning a holiday is almost as good as actually going on holiday. This is something that I am not very good at myself these days, as I don't have the mental energy to spend dreaming or planning too much about the things that aren't likely to happen, because I have to spend it on the things that are happening right now.
But, we all need to daydream sometimes, right?
Taraz
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