“Constant travel satisfies endless curiosity. Every new place offers an exciting change of perspective and creative inspiration for work and life. But if the conditions for business and workation travel are not right, this can quickly lead to high levels of stress. Studies show the downsides, however there are ways to prevent them.”
Claudia Brüggen
Jet lag, short stays, uncomfortable hotel beds, poor sleep, performance pressure, and social instability due to frequent travel – it doesn’t take a psychic to predict that this is difficult for traditional business travelers in the long run. Andrew Rundle and his colleagues also confirmed this in their study published in 2018: After evaluating the health and travel data of over 18,000 employees, they found that health risks increased with increasing travel frequency. Business travelers who were on the road for three or more weeks per month, for example, exercised less, smoked more, and struggled significantly more with sleep problems than employees who traveled a maximum of six days per month. The risk of depression and anxiety also increased with the number of trips.
Digital nomads and workation travelers usually face different challenges of long-term travel than traditional business travelers. The constant changing of locations encourages fleeting contacts that lack depth. Additionally, emotional competence and good communication skills are required to maintain a connection with friends and family back home. The often lacking emotional continuity can encourage loneliness. Those who work where others go on vacation also risk further blurring the boundaries between work and leisure. They forget to take vacations, allowing themselves clear breaks for relaxation, and in the end are neither really present at work nor in their free time. Emotional exhaustion from constantly adapting to new environments can also have a negative effect.
When traveling long-term, let the opportunities prevail
Studies, such as those by Ye and Xu from 2020, show that the general conditions and individual factors determine whether positive or negative factors prevail while traveling long-term. These include social and psychological resources such as resilience, stress management strategies, access to bleisure, and awareness of one’s own needs. Only those who are aware of their stress factors, limitations and weaknesses can take these into account appropriately when planning their trip. After all, the advantages of many business and workation trips remain: Many business travelers benefit from career boosts, learning experiences, and new perspectives by breaking out of their everyday routine.
For digital nomads, issues such as greater freedom, self-determination, personal growth and quality of life are at the forefront. To ensure that the positive aspects outweigh the negative, it is important to proactively manage potential risks (see box). This will benefit you not only while traveling, but also in your everyday life.
Tips for a more relaxed business trip/workation routine
Social stability is crucial for workation travelers/digital nomads who are constantly on the move. Long-term stays of at least one to three months and a so-called “third base” help with this. Whether it’s a special café or a co-living space, the third place is where nomads can meet regularly and make local friends. This eliminates the stress of constantly arriving in new places and allows routines and familiar structures to be established – a real mental relief factor. After all, people who are constantly living in new places need a special kind of social skill set.
Honesty, authenticity, and the ability to quickly build trust become key factors. At the same time, nomads must learn to maintain relationships over distances, whether with new friends or family back home. Those who master these skills not only gain stable friendships, but also develop greater communication skills, empathy, and emotional resilience.
Traditional business trips often involve physical burdens such as poor sleep and tension. Proven aids include personal travel pillows, earplugs, fragrance sprays for familiar moments, or a fascia ball. The Timeshifter Jet Lag app, for example, helps business travelers adjust their internal rhythm to the new time zone more quickly by creating tailored plans. These are based on the individuals’ sleep rhythm, travel destination, and chronotype, i.e., the various biologically determined characteristics of the sleep-wake rhythm.
Employers can also create a relaxed environment for their employees by limiting day trips, setting a cap on the number of travel days per month, establishing clear rules on availability and buffers between meetings, enabling bleisure stays, offering coaching and courses, and providing a comfort budget for long-haul flights or hotels with fitness and wellness facilities.
Claudia Brüggen …
… ist Reisejournalistin, Illustratorin und Texterin mit Schwerpunkt Psychologie und Gesundheit.
Seit 2018 lebt und arbeitet sie ortsunabhängig und verbringt einen großen Teil des Jahres auf Reisen.
Foto: © Designed with Firefly, Brüggen
