6 months on Workation: a summary of Gen Z and autonomy

I’ve spent the last six months on Workation – exploring the world (or at least parts of it) with a 30% workload. In this blog, I would like to share my most important experiences.

By Maya Töpperwien, March2024

What is workation?

Workation refers to the mix of vacation and work. After completing my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Zurich, I was drawn to faraway places and was lucky enough to be able to continue my part-time job as Head of Marketing and Communications at da professionals ag during this time.

So while I was exploring waterfalls in Laos, speedboating in Thailand, honing my surfing skills in Morocco and going on safari in Sri Lanka, my laptop was always my faithful companion.

The main difference to the office was that my work no longer took place partially online, but completely online: I worked online, my exchanges with colleagues took place online, I made phone calls online – a lot of my life really took place online.

Gen Z, always online?

If you believe various Gen Z explainers, this is exactly what my generation is all about: online, online and online again. Preferably in short video formats, because apparently our attention can’t take anything longer. According to most of the social media posts and even company concepts, there are no exceptions. But: what could be less modern than pigeonholing an entire social group into one and the same category based on a few characteristics?

Even though I’ve spent most of the last six months working online: My life has been anything but only online. During my workation, I switched from my smartphone to a flip phone for a few weeks. It‘s the same flip phone my 96-year-old grandpa uses. Instead of Whatsapp, Instagram, LinkedIn & Co., I could only be reached by texts for the next few weeks. Algorithm-based Spotify playlists put together especially for me were replaced by Sri Lankan local radio.  I listened to it via my wired headphones, which also acted as an antenna. I couldn’t watch short videos. I couldn’t watch let alone a movie. No, I solved Sudoku on my e-book reader. Yes, I didn’t let that get away from me. Or watch out, this is where it gets wild: I sat down, observed, and let my mind wander.

I did exactly what was normal before my online generation. I lived without algorithms, AI or constant entertainment.

At some point, it was time to turn on my smartphone and see what I was missing. The short answer is easy: nothing.

The more detailed answer: I missed out on generalizations and pigeonholing. As soon as I opened the social networks, I immediately saw various Gen Z explainers illustrating in their posts that the way I’ve been living the last few weeks is not even possible as a digital native. Because all digital natives and Gen Z-ers love online, love digital. We can’t help it because we don’t know the world any other way. The fact that we also have some autonomy in our lives and can decide when and how much and for what we need the internet is often written off.

Stereotypes in Transition

Admittedly, there are differences between the generations, yes. I know that I grew up with the internet and the generations before me did not. However, it bothers me that my generation is often reduced to this fact. And it’s not just Gen Z-ers who are subject to generalizations – for example, baby boomers (born between 1956 and 1965) also have to hear a lot in this area.

However, I think that for a society that presents itself as progressive and rejects pigeonholing, there is still a lot of generalization going on. The fact that entire business ideas revolve around explaining Generation Z to other generations is a mystery to me.

Have there ever been Boomer explainers? Or millennial explainers? Has a generation before mine ever been portrayed as completely different and new?

I hope not. At the end of the day, these differences don’t matter. In my opinion, they are greatly exaggerated.

Believe it or not, but my 96-year-old grandpa also has a tablet with which he FaceTimes.