Accordingly a recent article in the Washington Post, the phenomenon of “workcation” is on the rise. These hybrid work-play trips promise to combine the best parts of a productive work day with a relaxing vacation. A pitch “the best of both worlds” is always tempting – but what if it’s a total lie?

This is how a “workplace” should work: You open up in a new city and work remotely during the day, with evenings and weekends free for holiday activities. In theory, this gives you valuable flexibility that makes longer stays easier. But if you’re a workaholic (or your company is expected to be), you will likely find yourself sticking to your usual schedule – damn time differences – leaving less time for recreational activities than you imagined.

If you take your family on a business trip, they have plenty of time to explore their new surroundings – without you. “

In the meantime, you’re likely to get less done on the work side than you do at home, because let’s face it, chilling out by the pool with a book is a lot more fun than attending your third Zoom meeting of the day. It’s like deliberately planning a tropical vacation during hurricane season so you can stay indoors and work while your increasingly bored companions climb the walls.

This is why it is so amazing that workcations are being marketed to traveling families. I’m not a parent, but to me this seems like the worst use case. Sure, taking your family on a business trip will give them plenty of time to explore their new surroundings – without you. Not only is this a shame on your kids and spouse, who will likely want to hang out with you, but it also goes without saying that your spouse will be available for full-time child disputes to ease your plan to work full-time on vacation.

G / O Media can receive a commission

Workcations are useful to your employer, not to you

If this sounds like the opposite of “the best of both worlds,” it’s because it is – but only for you. Employers love that shit. If you take time off, you will have to pay PTO and figure out how to cover your responsibilities; if you’re on a business trip they take the bill (or at least should). A “workplace” comfortably relieves them in both respects and gives them PR material: You can turn your trip as a “perk” for potential employees and at the same time prevent existing employees from actually taking a relaxing break, especially lower-ranking employees. Your direct reps might see you on Zoom and think, “Hell, if my boss is on vacation, I should probably be too.” (This is bad.)

If this sounds like the opposite of “the best of both worlds,” it’s because it is – but only to you. Employers love that shit.

Unsurprisingly, companies like AirBnB, Landing (which is basically AirBnB for apartment subletting and whose CEO is quoted in the Post article), and Blueground (the same, minus the quote) are also loving this trend. Convincing remote workers to uproot their lives for months increases the demand for off-hotel accommodations, driving up their ratings and allowing them to raise even more funding from private equity and / or venture capital firms – and that’s exactly what it’s really about. (Air BnB had sales of $ 3.4 billion last year and still received literally $ 1 billion in private equity from Sixth Street Partners and Silver Lake Partners in April 2020so clearly the strategy works.)

It is almost too much that the Washington Post, owned by a man who could, had a guide on never going on vacation sends itself into non-space because his employees are so afraid of being fired that they are piss in bottles, passed out and even die at work. In many ways, it is the culmination of nearly a century of crusade against things like “a living wage” and “occasionally not working.”

The Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938 set a minimum wage of US $ 7.25 and limited the standard work week to 40 hours, among other things. Of course, companies have spent the last 80 years successfully weakening the FLSA (and the unions that made it possible) so they can finally get back to 18-hour shifts for 12-year-olds. If you could bring John D. Rockefeller or the Gilded Age Copper Baron Marcus Daly back to life for a day, they would die of happiness the moment someone explained workcations. Expecting your employees to work on vacation without saying it outright – and somehow get them to say thank you for it! – is exactly the kind of genius they would have appreciated.

Offering better vacation benefits is expensive; It’s free to wash the concept of working around the clock into something that sounds cool. “

There are people for whom a “workcation” is plausible or even desirable – but They call it a “digital nomad”“And it’s more of a conscious, long-term lifestyle choice. The vast majority of workers fail and the bosses know it. But offering better vacation benefits is expensive; It’s free to wash the concept of working 24/7 into something that sounds cool. Don’t fall for it. You only have one life – don’t spend it working on vacation.

Photo: mine warehouse (Shutterstock)

If you’re trying to listen to audio on your MacBook – whether you’re playing Spotify while working or editing a video project – chances are you don’t want to avoid the constant interruption of loud notification tones from your messaging apps. Unfortunately, unlike Windows, macOS doesn’t have a built-in utility that lets you control the alarm volume for individual apps.

If you want to set the volume for Messages or Slack to 20% and Music to 60%, you have to rely on third-party apps to get the job done. We found two great ones.

BackgroundMusic: A free app that lets you adjust the app volume individually

BackgroundMusic is a free macOS app that allows you to assign different volume levels to each app. Screenshot: Pranay Parab

BackgroundMusic is a free app that allows you to set different volume levels for each app running on macOS. It adds an icon to the menu bar that, when clicked, shows the volume levels for various apps, which can be easily adjusted using a slider.

While BackgroundMusic works well, the user interface isn’t the best, especially on smaller screens. Not everyone has a 27-inch iMac, and those of us with 13-inch MacBooks will find it a bit cramped. One problem is that the app shows more than necessary – I can see 13 apps on my computer’s list, including some photo editing and writing apps that don’t send notifications or play audio. The ability to pin favorite apps is sorely missed here, and when you hit the More Apps option, you’ll scroll through an insanely long list to find the app you want.

G / O Media can receive a commission

However, BackgroundMusic is free, which makes it easier to live with those little annoyances. You can download BackgroundMusic on GitHub (Big Sur compatible version and older versions are available separately).

SoundSource: The best app for advanced audio controls on Mac

With SoundSource you can assign different volume levels to each Mac app and also redirect audio to different devices. Screenshot: Pranay Parab

Rogue Amoeba is among the best in the business when it comes to creating audio apps for macOS, and Sound source is one of its outstanding apps. With it, you can not only control the volume for each app, but also redirect the sound from each app to different devices. You can ask the app to play sounds from music or Spotify only through your headphones, while zoom audio is routed to your Mac’s built-in speakers by default. You can customize these options to your heart’s content and even pin frequently used apps to the top of the list.

SoundSource also offers other advanced features, including the ability to add sound effects or apply equalizer settings on an app-by-app basis. The free version allows you to try out all of the features for 20 minutes each time you start SoundSource. After that, the resulting audio quality is “worsened” (at least that’s what the app developer says). If you like what it does well enough to make some cash, the full app can be purchased for $ 39.

Photo: LookerStudio (Shutterstock)

As a Delta COVID variant spreading, More and more employers require their employees to be vaccinated. As we’ve seen in some high profile examples, non-compliance has resulted in employees as well get fired or quit their job to avoid the sting. But are they still entitled to unemployment benefits? The short answer is no, as the law favors employers when it comes to vaccines. Here’s what you need to know.

Rejection of the vaccine is a reason for termination

According to USA Today, a current US Department of Justice legal opinion acknowledges that private companies have a legal right to mandate COVID vaccines, provided they don’t violate any applicable state and federal laws, which you can review here. That is, if your company’s policy now requires a vaccination and you don’t get one, you could be fired and excluded from unemployment benefits. You also wouldn’t qualify if you quit your job just because you don’t want to get vaccinated.

You need a good reason to collect unemployment

In order to receive unemployment benefits, you usually have to be unemployed through no fault of your own, for example during a round of layoffs in your company. You are not entitled to unemployment if you have been laid off for misconduct and that may include a violation of your company’s new vaccine policy. (It should be mentioned here that in some states You can still claim unemployment benefits if you have been made redundant for less serious reasons, such as: B. just not good at your job.)

G / O Media can receive a commission

The only exception to this is what is known as a “good cause”. This is the point where you categorically roll back your employer for valid reasons, such as unsafe working conditions, lack of pay, or discrimination. In many states, “good cause” can include discrimination on the basis of religion or disability. In this case, a claim could be made if your employer did not make reasonable arrangements before you were terminated or fired (e.g., work from home or other social distancing measures).

However, these precautions must not represent “unreasonable hardship” for the employer. In this case, an employer might argue that refusing a vaccine prevents you from doing your job effectively, that you pose a health risk to other employees. You will also need to provide documents to prove that you cannot get a vaccine for a legitimate medical or religious reason and that your employer violated your rights. From a legal point of view, it would be an uphill battle.

As employment lawyer Joshua Van Kampen explained in a Yahoo! interviewDon’t expect to find lawyers willing to sue an employer for compulsory vaccination: “I haven’t found a valid religious objection to vaccination yet. I think people will be surprised when they know they don’t have a lot of legal options. “

Bottom line

Do not expect unemployment benefits if you violate your company’s vaccination requirements, as this will be seen as a reason for termination. Technically, you could qualify for a medical or religious exception, but that would be very difficult to prove. As these guidelines are becoming the norm, it is best to simply get the vaccine.

Photo: Thanakorn.P (Shutterstock)

If you are considering an international trip in the near future, your first stops should be the CDCs Travel recommendations by destination Map. There you can see how your destination country fares in terms of COVID cases.

At the time of this writing, things are generally not going well. There are four categories: low, medium, high, and very high risk. The “very high” list is the longest with around 75 countries, including the USA. The “high” list is the next longest.

Who is at low risk? Currently this list includes China, Australia, some Eastern European countries (including Poland and Romania), and a number of African countries from Mali to Sudan.

The map provides a snapshot of current conditions, so there is no guarantee that a country will still be low risk at the time of your planned vacation. But it can give you an idea, and you can always check back as your date approaches.

Here are the precautions the CDC recommends for the different risk levels:

• Very high risk: “Avoid traveling to these destinations. If you need to travel to these destinations make sure you are fully vaccinated before you travel. ”
• High risk: “Make sure you are fully vaccinated before traveling to these destinations. Unvaccinated travelers should avoid essential trips to these destinations. “
• Moderate risk: “Make sure you are fully vaccinated before traveling to these destinations. Unvaccinated travelers in increased risk of serious illness of COVID-19 should avoid unnecessary travel to these destinations.
• Low risk: “Make sure you are fully vaccinated before traveling to these destinations.”

G / O Media can receive a commission

Countries for which no data are available are treated as very high risk countries with a “avoid travel” warning. And yes, the CDC recommends that you get vaccinated before traveling anywhere. Read more on her page about international travel.

By the way, if you are traveling domestically, there is one Map of the US counties according to the current COVID status, as well as Recommendations for domestic travelers.