Holiworking: Perspectives on New Ways of Integrating Holiday and Work

Digitally enabled work arrangements such as remote work, mobile work and digital nomadism have increasingly been researched. More recently, a distinct form of work arrangement has emerged that allows employees to relocate temporarily to a foreign destination where they simultaneously engage in both professional work and leisure activities. This study develops an empirically grounded, substantive theory of this emerging novel arrangement termed ‘holiwork’. Employing grounded theory methodology, the research draws upon the experiences of six individuals engaged in holiwork. The findings illustrate that holiwork constitutes a complex blend of ambivalent feelings and experiences split between the novelty and alluring appeal of unfamiliar cultural environments and the continuous demands of their full-time professional responsibilities. These insights contribute to the literature on the sociology of digitally mediated work, offering theoretical implications for understanding new work arrangements shaped by digital connectivity and global mobility.