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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to take a working vacation if you have

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Speaker 1: any flexibility to work from home. Working from a different home,

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Speaker 1: particularly during August, can make you feel more relaxed and

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Speaker 1: can make a lot of memories possible, even if it's

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Speaker 1: not easy to take a ton of time off. A

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Speaker 1: few years after the pandemic, a great many knowledge workers

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Speaker 1: are still working from home, at least a few days

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Speaker 1: a week. Lots of organizations have settled on a schedule

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Speaker 1: of roughly three days in the office and two days

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Speaker 1: at home, but in many cases that is just a

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Speaker 1: guideline and the exact days themselves aren't strictly enforced. The

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Speaker 1: idea is that you need to swipe into the office

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Speaker 1: a little more than half the time over the course

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Speaker 1: of the year. Now a key point here working from

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Speaker 1: home really should be called remote work, or perhaps location

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Speaker 1: independent work. Unless you need specialized equipment that your organization

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Speaker 1: has installed at your home, you generally aren't required to

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Speaker 1: actually work from your house. Most people just choose to

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Speaker 1: work from a home office because it is convenient, comfortable,

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Speaker 1: and you already own or rent it, so you don't

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Speaker 1: have to pay anything else to use it. But if

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Speaker 1: your work is truly location independent, then there is no

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Speaker 1: reason not to consolidate a few of your remote work

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Speaker 1: days and take a working vacation. This might make it

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Speaker 1: possible to get away for longer, even if you don't

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Speaker 1: get a ton of vacation, or if you work for

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Speaker 1: yourself and the work never really goes away. For instance,

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Speaker 1: maybe you rent a beach house for the month of August.

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Speaker 1: You take the first week of August off, and your

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Speaker 1: office is closed the friday before Labor Day. You also

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Speaker 1: take two other fridays in the month off, but work

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Speaker 1: twelve days remotely from the beach. You are still working,

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Speaker 1: but you can likely walk on the beach during lunch.

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Speaker 1: Or if you've got a family and your family is

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Speaker 1: with you, you can go to the beach after four

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Speaker 1: pm or so every day with them. You're getting a

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Speaker 1: lot of the upside of taking a month away without

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Speaker 1: actually taking a month off, which is hard for a

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Speaker 1: lot of people to do. I have also seen this

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Speaker 1: work even if you do have to go into an office.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes organizations have offices and places that you might consider

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Speaker 1: a vacation destination like other countries. I know someone who

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Speaker 1: plan to spend a month in Europe, during which she

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Speaker 1: would spend two weeks working in her organization's Amsterdam office

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Speaker 1: while her and kids explored that city. Then she would

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Speaker 1: travel with them for the other two weeks around the

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Speaker 1: Netherlands and other places. She only wound up taking about

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Speaker 1: nine days of PTO, but got the month in Europe experience. Now, obviously,

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Speaker 1: this is easier if you either don't have children or

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Speaker 1: they are old enough to fend for themselves in a

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Speaker 1: vacation location, or if your spouse is not working or

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Speaker 1: else has an incredible amount of flexibility. Absent these conditions,

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Speaker 1: then this is more challenging. But I know people who

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Speaker 1: have found day camps for their kids in far flung locales.

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Speaker 1: You rent an apartment near the beach in California for

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Speaker 1: a month, you work remotely, and your kid goes to

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Speaker 1: a local day camp. You meet up for adventures after

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Speaker 1: four pm and on the weekends, and on the handful

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Speaker 1: of days that you take off too. Now, some purists

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Speaker 1: might claim that taking a working vacation is ruining the

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Speaker 1: whole point of a vacation. I am a big fan

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Speaker 1: of taking time off wherever you're working, and I think

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Speaker 1: it's also wise to set some boundaries. If you are

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Speaker 1: working while you have taken time away from normal life

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Speaker 1: for a while, this is probably not the time to

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Speaker 1: be doing overtime or evening calls or the like. These

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Speaker 1: are probably more coast days. But I know that for me,

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Speaker 1: if I couldn't work while I was traveling, I would

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Speaker 1: not travel nearly as much. By the end of August

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Speaker 1: this year, I will have been away from home for

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Speaker 1: more than six weeks on things that at least kind

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Speaker 1: of look like vacations. I have worked on several days

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Speaker 1: during them, because there is no way I would have

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Speaker 1: been willing to get away that much if I couldn't,

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Speaker 1: so I think it is a worthwhile trade off. And

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Speaker 1: if you are looking to make August or any upcoming

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Speaker 1: month more fun, more adventurous, and more relaxed, consider that

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Speaker 1: working from home doesn't need to mean working from your

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Speaker 1: actual home. Home can be somewhere cool, at least for

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Speaker 1: a little while. In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback. You can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.