VAL THORENS — The ski town of Val Thorens wakes up to sun and a thick white blanket of snow. Andrés, 34, is seated comfortably in one of the sofas at Alpen Art, a restaurant-tea room with large windows and a view of the emblematic Cime de Caron, but he remains focused on his laptop.
“This is the second winter that I’ve decided to stay for a week in Val Thorens, for the season opening,” he says.
A sales manager for a small business in Rouen, Andrés takes advantage of his company’s flexibility, which allows employees to telework two days per week and accumulate up to eight days. To balance his hobby and his work responsibilities, Andrés starts early in the morning, takes a ski break between noon and 3 p.m. and then goes back online to work until the end of the day. “I adjust my schedule according to my appointments but also to the weather,” he says.
Before and after COVID
Like other teleworkers, Andrés practices what is referred to as “workation,” a somewhat barbaric term born from the contraction of “work” and “vacation” — or in French “tracances,” which is no more elegant! In recent years and of course especially since the COVID pandemic, new ways of working have emerged.
“There is a before and an after COVID,” says Catherine Namin, human resources director of the NGO Solidarités International. Florence, director of a recruitment firm, says: “We see it now during job interviews. People aren’t afraid to refuse a position if they believe the company doesn’t offer enough teleworking days.”
While some companies are reconsidering 100% remote policies, it doesn’t seem that the concept of hybrid or flexible teleworking — even with some office attendance requirements — is going to disappear any time soon.
It’s an underlying trend that coincides with a readjustment of the work-life balance.
Probably because “the work culture has changed,” says Régis Blugeon, vice-president of human resources at the French multinational corporation of Saint-Gobain. “When we signed our teleworking agreement in late 2018 (two days a week for positions that allowed it, i.e. 20% of our employees and nearly 8,000 people), it was revolutionary. Today, we are completely used to it. Since COVID, we have demonstrated that teleworking fully contributes to the company’s performance instead of lowering it. It is also an essential asset of our employer brand.”
“Today, most people want to choose where they work from, especially those under 35 but also highly experienced profiles. It’s an important factor for companies to attract potential employees,” says Florent Turc, recruitment manager at Solidarités International. Turc himself chose to work from Marseille, even though the NGO’s headquarters are in Clichy, near Paris.
The concept is, instead of staying “confined” at home, that you can work from almost anywhere, depending on your constraints, desires, private life or hobbies. “It’s an underlying trend that coincides with a readjustment of the work-life balance,” says Clément Marinos, economics lecturer at Southern Brittany University and member of a research project on this topic.
Fiber-optic vacation rentals
Tourism professionals are obviously very well aware of this trend.
“In Val Thorens, people sitting with their laptops are part of the landscape,” says Vincent Lalanne, director of the town’s tourist office. “Thanks to the Lyon-Turin fiber-optic link, we have a very good internet connection, which is a determining factor.” Four- and five-star hotels have equipped themselves with efficient Wi-Fi networks for their guests, but also for those who enjoy working in their cozy lounge.
These services encourage guests to extend their stays from Thursday to Monday. “Some families with young children look for vacation rentals equipped ‘with fiber-optic internet’ for two weeks,” says Thibaud Loubère, marketing manager in Val Thorens. “One parent works the first week, while the other takes care of the children and goes skiing. The following week, they exchange roles.” This also includes so-called “regionals”, people from the nearby cities of Lyon, Grenoble and Geneva, who go to resorts when the snow is good to both work and ski.
An economic lever
The trend has also become an economic lever for ski resorts. “Workation ticks a lot of boxes in Verbier,” says Arnaud Walpen, in charge of promotion for the Swiss village. “The Valais Canton, in the heart of Europe, is well connected in terms of transportation and the internet. So visiting us for both tourism and work is a good idea. It was already in the air, but with COVID, we have seen people leaving cities and settling here for five to six months. Some have even stayed.”
This is the case for Pedro, sales director at the optical manufacturer Zeiss, who sold his apartment near his office in Zurich to live full-time in Verbier. The company allows this if he travels three times a month to Zurich or Vienna.
It’s a combination that requires discipline and flexibility, as well as trust, in both directions.
“This hybrid model allows us to keep ties between us. Flexibility is key, especially because my work is evaluated on my results and not on the number of hours I spend in the office. It allows me to exercise five to six times a week and to go skiing in winter. It’s a combination that requires discipline and flexibility, as well as trust, in both directions.”
In Verbier, it is difficult to estimate the size of the “workationer” community, but it seems there are enough of them to boost the town’s business activity.
For example, the ski resort already has two coworking spaces. “We offer a space of 100 square meters (1076 square feet) with seating for about 20, a meeting room with a large screen, as well a phone booth,” says Norman, manager of Mountain Hub. “From November, our regulars contact us to book a fixed desk.”
That is what Alexis does. The Canadian stays in Verbier for a few weeks every winter. Thanks to the “favorable” time difference, he takes full advantage of skiing in the morning and goes online in the afternoon.
A growing phenomenon
For a long time, the concept of teleworking was thought to be restricted to digital nomads working in tech as freelancers, developers, etc. “Now we realize that the phenomenon is expanding to other professions,” economics lecturer Marinos says. “With a laptop and a good internet connection, you can do almost any job from anywhere. Thanks to Starlink [a satellite internet provider], you can even work from a sailboat in the middle of the ocean.”
“Currently 56 countries offer specific visas for nomadic workers, and they are competing fiercely to attract them,” Marinos adds.
That is what led Indji, a public relations manager for HelloTickets, to leave Paris after COVID to stay with her partner in Mauritius for a while. “Thanks to my company, I can work from here and follow European working hours. This gives me time in the morning to enjoy the surroundings. To maintain ties, we all get together twice a year for three days in a place we chose, like Lisbon in October,” Indji says.
What’s impressive is the difference between my work, which is the same, and my personal life, where nothing is the same.
Martin, a corporate lawyer in a Parisian firm says, “A year ago, I decided to live for a month in an Airbnb on the Spanish island of Formentera. I was attracted to the climate and the sea, because I love running, swimming and surfing. I bought a second computer monitor and got organized. What’s impressive is the difference between my work, which is the same as in Paris, and my personal life, where nothing is the same. At the end of the day, I close my laptop and look up, and the light reflecting on the sea is orange. It’s the feeling of living but in a heightened way.”
Martin sums up quite neatly what makes this alternative way of living and working a clear part of the “new world” —one that is still in the making, but the signs of which are already visible.
Chalets for coliving and coworking
The development of workation is also giving rise to the creation of new dedicated places. In the hamlet of Courbaton, near the Arcs 1600 resort, locals Lucas Falcoz and his sister Candice had the idea in 2021 of transforming the family chalet into what they called a “Wanderful Life Refuge.”
“We wanted to respond to the desire of urban residents who want to breathe, to get out of their routine to work and live better, in a friendly environment. Hence the concept of high-end ‘coliving,’ with rooms worthy of a beautiful hotel, a large living room with a fireplace, a well-equipped kitchen and a large table with a view of the peaks where those who wish can share a raclette.”
It was this original offer that appealed to Laurence, 49, a cash management consultant. “I like to spend a week in the mountains every year to both work and ski. As I usually travel alone, I was attracted to the concept of ‘coliving’ in a beautiful, intimate and quiet chalet. It’s nice to gather around the breakfast table in the morning, and in the evening to debrief the day over a drink in front of the fireplace,” she says. Thanks to a reasonable rate (from 200 euros in winter for a room for two, breakfast included), the chalet is always full. A second one has just opened in Saint-Gervais.
“While I wasn’t on vacation, I was able to break my routine and recharge my batteries.”
Jessica, an independent graphic designer, has adopted a similar approach. For the first time, she has granted herself a week of teleworking in Saint-Lary, at Pyren’Escape, a large house for coworking with a shared living space. “It was very good for my mental health to work in a space surrounded by nature, as I live in the city of Toulouse. While I wasn’t on vacation, I was able to break my routine and recharge my batteries,” Jessica says.
For Colin, 39, a tech employee and marketing manager, “My employment contract is hybrid, in the sense that I have to be in the office two days a week. But at the same time, for five weeks a year, I can work from one of the five European countries in which my company operates.”
Thanks to Paatch, a coliving and coworking platform, Colin spent a week in September “in a splendid house” in Cap Ferret and another in December in Alpe d’Huez. “This system helps me a lot in terms of social relationships and allows me not to feel isolated, which can be a downside of teleworking. I can disconnect without going offline! It’s ideal.”
