Remote Work: The Digital Nomad

I recently had my eyes opened to a phenomenon that is an interesting lens to thinking about the future of work, and that is the digital nomad. It's a thing, and as usual I'm a dollar short and an hour late (or whatever) so if you are like me and this is new to you, here is what Wikipedia has to say about it. "Digital nomads are a type of people who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living and, more generally, conduct their life in a nomadic manner. Such workers often work remotely from foreign countries, coffee shops, public libraries, co-working spaces, or recreational vehicles." Let me start by staying I’ve met digital nomads before. I just didn’t know that was what they were. And I am officially obsessed and excited by them!

The first one stands out. Two years ago, I was waiting for a flight in DC. It was delayed. I therefore sat at the bar and waited with a group of women I didn't know who became wonderful waiting buddies. There was the lawyer heading to NYC, the farmer heading back home to Iowa, and the HR professional jetting off to Buenos Ares for 9 weeks to live there and work remotely. This HR badass woman was hands down the coolest of our bunch. She was in her late 20s, tastefully tatted up, hair pixied, and digitally way ahead of all of us (one of us still had a blackberry, and I swear it wasn't me!). She casually explained she worked in DC as head of HR, had been at her company for 7 years, and wasn't really needed in the physical office to do her work (company was global). So she decided she would Airbnb her DC apartment for some extra cash, then choose locations around the world and live there for a month or so. She had already done Paris, Hong Kong, and Mexico City. Now she was heading to South America. I didn't really connect that this was a thing, but it certainly stood out for me. I told everyone who would listen about her. She was my hero.

When I got the vocabulary for this phenomenon was on my recent trip to Amsterdam (let's be clear, I have so much material thanks to that trip!!!!). I was at an Airbnb Experiences beer walking tour and one of the 6 other people in our group just moved to Amsterdam 4 days before from LA. She’s a 32 year old designer working full time at a company. She just settled into an Airbnb apartment for the next month, and was still working full time at her job in LA. As she said "with Slack and good wifi in my Airbnb I can work anywhere." She had planned and plotted and prepared for this way of life for the last 2 years. There was a corporate guy from Airbnb on our tour (such a cool guy!) who knowingly quipped, “she’s a digital nomad.” And explained it to me in more detail. The Guardian recently had an article which gave more stories on the people “who travel the world in search of fast Wi-Fi.”

But before I wax poetic, here’s the flip side I’m also seeing. Not every employer is on board (Duh). And it’s not even the big, established places I’m referring to. In the past year I’ve made friends with entrepreneurs on the West coast and invariably they’ve landed squarely in the camp of “I only want to work with people I see everyday”. These are forward thinking businesses on the front end of the innovation curve, but the founders are decidedly uncomfortable with this nomadic trend. Their feedback? We want to have a strong culture. We worry about focus and delivery with the team when people are so spread out. We don’t trust that we will get the best/most out of the person.

But let’s be clear. Despite the objections, the digital nomad gives us a sneak peak into what the future of work holds. And it’s here right now. In a recent op ed in the Boston Business Journal, Hala Hanna, Managing director, MIT Solve said: “In the US alone, 34% of the workforce is freelancing.” This number is astounding to me. Ugh. I hate myself a little when I use the words “the gig economy is here” (such a buzzword!). Especially considering my parent’s generation were one company career employees. My father literally worked for NASA his entire working life. My generation no longer has that. After 25 years of working, I have worked for 8 different employers as a full-time employee. And I am by no means a butterfly. I haven’t branched out to freelance. But the technology created to support and connect gig employees has wonderful upside for traditional employees.

I’ve watched as my brick and mortar employer’s attitude towards workers has shifted as technology has gotten better. No longer am I required to head into the office unless I have in person meetings—meetings which happen less and less often. I love it. I am so productive and happy. My team and I work in different offices, but see each other only periodically. But we are involved in each other’s work and lives. We talk often throughout the day and collaborate and do exciting, dynamic work. We deliver big things together. And do not have a water cooler to connect us, but instead Skype, Sharepoint and Jive. Do we have great culture on our team? Yes, we really do. Recently we had 3 openings to fill, and were happily swarmed by very talented internal colleagues who wanted to join our team. That meant the world to me. The feedback we got was people liked the quality and impact of our work, and the culture of the team— our spread-out, fun, quirky team who sit in different offices and time zones. And we have recently had someone come to us and request to be a digital nomad while her husband had to work abroad. The answer was a total no brainer. Of course we want her on the team contributing, even if it’s from another time zone! We have our very own digital nomad! And that’s a very good thing.

So will I up and move my husband and 2 youngish kids to live in Amsterdam or Hong Kong tomorrow? Sadly no. I’m super happy living in my home with my things. (Don’t judge. It’s a great block with high thread count sheets!) But I will encourage my kids to embrace global citizenship (they’ve been learning Spanish since they were 5 in school) and help them think about their work in a more fluid way—they will need to reinvent their skills and roles throughout their career. Heck, maybe when they leave the nest my husband and I will live as digital nomads with our 21st century gigs and Airbnb finds. Most of all, either today or tomorrow, we will find ways to keep learning and pushing ourselves to embrace digitally-assisted work. So to all the digital nomads out there my hat is off to you. Thank you for doing something that sounds crazy and fabulous all wrapped into one. Drop me a line in Brooklyn, heck— plant your nomadic self here for a month or so—which I personally think is the center of what’s next. But then again, I’m partial to my borough!