I worked from the beach in Mexico, without telling my boss

• The freedom of remote work has led some employees to go abroad — to liveEnjoy your vacation. 
• Insider spoke to a Mexican advertising employee who traveled to Mexico on vacation, but did not tell their coworkers.
• After the stress of fake it and making video calls at 2 am, they said they would never do it again.

This essay is based upon a conversation with an employee from the advertising sector. Insider has verified their identity. The conversation was edited for clarity and length.

I didn’t expect to find myself working at 2 AM in Mexico from the bathroom floor in a hotel room. But that’s exactly what happened in 2021. My job is based in Europe, where there were strict lockdowns in the spring of 2021. 

It can be seen as irresponsible but I decided to go on vacation.

My boss informed me that they needed me to attend a series of meetings the week after everything was booked. So I decided to have my cake and eat it, too — I’d go on the vacation I’d planned and work from Mexico, and hopefully no one would be the wiser.

To make sure that I don’t get caught out if I had to work from anywhere other than home, I always use a set background for video calls. That made it a lot easier to work from anywhere, because I didn’t need to find a good background — I just needed strong WiFi, although even that could be an issue. 

I thought working on vacation would be the fairly easy — but it wasn’t

One hotel in Mexico had a problem with the WiFi. It was very difficult to get work done at that hotel. Plus, my partner was annoyed that we were working during our vacation.

It felt like I was losing my focus on both the things I was trying to accomplish and the people I was helping. I was unable to enjoy my vacation as well as submit the same quality of work as I normally do.

I received a call one night that I needed to be on at 2 AM Mexico time.

The call was early morning in the city where I’m based, and that night, my partner and I went out to a club In Mexico. I thought: “I’ll just keep out and stay up till it’s time to call, then it’ll be done and I’ll go to bed.” It seemed like an excellent plan. 

We stayed up until 1 a.m., then we went back to the hotel. My partner was ready to go to bed and I didn’t want to be in their room while they were asleep so I called from the bathroom. I used the bathroom floor to take the chair because there was no chair in the bathroom.

Fortunately, my presentation was the beginning. I completed my part and then turned my camera off. I also set my settings to muted. My partner was shaking me awake the next moment. The meeting — which had gone on for over an hour after my presentation — had ended, and I was the only one left in the virtual meeting room. I was also lying on the floor of the bathroom, next to my laptop.

I called in sick upon my return from vacation because I realized that working from vacation was not an option.

I was so embarrassed about the phone call. I was embarrassed about the call and wondered if anyone noticed. However, when I returned to work the following week, no one said anything so I don’t think that they knew. But I was like, “I’m never going to do this again.”

Remote work is a great way to make anything possible. However, remote work is not possible. At the very minimum, you need reliable WiFi and a chair and a table. 

But I also find office culture a little absurd. Did I really need those days of work? I work in marketing and advertising. It’s not as if someone is going to die if I’m not working. I’m not a doctor. 

I won’t ever go on vacation and work at the same moment again.

There are more important things than work meetings. These include sleep and enjoying your time. It’s easy to believe that work is the most important thing. I don’t have to be perfect, but my clients don’t care if I put in 80% or 100%. It’s impossible to do everything at once, but it is important to maintain a balance.

That said, the stress of lying and deceiving — and the steps it takes to conceal the lie, like blocking your coworkers on Instagram stories — takes away from the enjoyment of the vacation. It’s not worth it.