I went on a work-cation and here's what I thought

Before the circuit-breaker and social distancing measures were enforced, no one knew what a work-cation was. Well, at least I didn’t know what that was until I saw the hotel and apartment advertisements.

“Have a change of working environment while staying safe” were the words on said advertisements. That sounded interesting enough, but I didn’t want to overspend on a hotel room so I decided to try getting some work done in a serviced apartment instead in Chinatown instead.

Truth to be told, I was doubting the whole idea of it. After all, who goes on a “vacation” to do work? Why am I spending more money to do work?

But in the name of research, I ended up booking a one bedroom apartment in Chinatown off Booking.com and stayed there for a night. 

There weren’t any options for a shorter duration of stay for this apartment, but there are hotels that offer hourly packages if you really want to work outside of your home during the day.

The bad: Don't mistake it for a vacation

For starters, going into a fresh, clean room with a rather comfortable bed did not help in motivating me to work. I had to put my bags on the bed to keep myself working at the tiny desk in the room.

The bad: It ended up to be more boring than I had expected

There’s absolutely nothing to do in the room. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the apartment owners. The room was clearly meant for travellers to sleep in and lounge in, so it didn’t have a very conducive atmosphere for me to write my stories.

I also have the habit of going to my kitchen whenever I’m bored, but all I had there was a tiny mini bar with some drinks.

The good: Access to facilities

I took a lunch swim and it definitely made me feel a lot more awake. I stay in a HDB flat so having a pool right outside my workspace is definitely something new.

The good: Peace, if you have a noisy home

It’s usually rather quiet at home for me and I don’t typically have a problem with concentrating on my work, but I would think booking an apartment for a couple of days to work on an important assignment would be ideal for those who live with many family members.

The good: A great zoom background for important meetings

I’m not joking, I had to interview someone for a story and she commented that my “room” was really neat. I won’t say how my actual room fares in comparison to the apartment.

This article was first published in Her World Online.