By Jeremy Brito, London
In April 2022, Airbnb CEO, Brian Cheskey, announced its employees could now work from home indefinitely, allowing them to work from anywhere within their home-base country or abroad for a period of 90 days. The strategic move derived from the Coronavirus pandemic which has affected many traditional ‘workplaces’ causing them to shudder their brick-and-mortar locations, requiring their employees to work from home (WFH). This new work model has proved to be a positive move for Airbnb whose online job page was visited by over 1 million people worldwide and giving them the most productive two-year period in its history. Airbnb along with other global tech companies, including Meta, Microsoft, Atlassian and 3M, are now looking towards the future and implementing a fully flexible ‘workplace’.
Born out of the Coronavirus pandemic, the ‘Great Resignation,’ has produced over 4.3 million US employees to either work from home, furloughed or made redundant providing the opportunity for these individuals to be more adventurous and look for work with actual meaning and purpose. The big shift away from traditional corporate roles has led to people focusing on:
- Creating an entrepreneurial / personal business
- Promoting & influencing on Social Media apps such as Tik-Tok and Instagram
- Taking part in the gig-economy via Taxi or Food Delivery apps
- Working on side hustles such as market affiliation and flipping products
These factors have laid the foundation for the rise of the digital nomad, individuals who want to live abroad and work remotely without the constraint of a traditional office location. The increase in co-working spaces, advancement of internet speeds and communication tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams means these individuals can connect with the workplace from anywhere in the world with relative ease. Countries around the world have taken notice of this trend and have opened up their borders by offering a 1-year digital nomad visa. Mexico, Bali, Portugal, Norway and Argentina are just some of the countries that are open to remote work. The benefit of these visas is that they can be processed within two months and tend to be tax exempt for one year. Spouses and/or family members can also be added to the visa.
Digital Nomads earning a foreign salary in dollars, euros or pounds find that their currencies go a lot further in these countries. The side effect of this is the increase cost of long-term rentals, food and goods / services. This is beneficial for local businesses and the government who see an increase in tax revenue, however, the high cost of living can push out less affluent people within the local community.
With the pandemic receding, many companies are now including a ‘hybrid’ model as the next step of flexible working. Individuals tend to work a predetermined combination of days at home and in the office. Goldman Sachs, Google and Spotify have recently adapted to this model, believing that employees should be returning to the office as it fosters better collaboration and creativity. With a less than plentiful labour market, the power is currently in the hands of employees to decide whether they want to work remotely full-time. Moreover, companies who wish to evolve in this new environment and maintain / retain employees must try to adapt to these organisational changes, remote working is here to stay.
