We’ve all seen it: the person at the airport gate loudly telling their boss their Wi-Fi isn’t strong enough for video calls, clearly pretending to be stuck at home. Or that friend who, between bottomless mimosas at brunch, is furiously tapping out Slack messages.
Welcome to the modern vacation: gate-checked by remote work.
Thanks to flexible schedules and “work-from-anywhere” policies, we technically can work from anywhere — even while on vacation. And yet that freedom has become a trap. Why bother using PTO when you can save it and fire off emails from a New York hotel room or an Airbnb on a bachelorette weekend?
The result: We’re traveling more than ever, but actually vacationing less than before.
Between lagging Wi-Fi, comped breakfast buffets with unanswered Slack threads, and the ever-present fear of looking unproductive, we’re realizing that something has to change. Welcome to 2026, the year we all start “deadzoning.”
