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Hal Koss, Reporter: Marketing, Media, Tech explains, Their ranks doubled between 2018 and 2020. And a year away from offices will likely accelerate the trend.
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| Photo: Built In |
Dany Caissy, a freelance software developer, was already working remotely when the pandemic caused many businesses to shutter their offices and send employees home.
Caissy’s job isn’t done from a home office or a shared co-working space, however. Instead, he works from Airbnbs rented for months at a time while he travels the world. In the past couple of years, he’s hopped from Canada to France to Malaysia to Panama to the Philippines to Mexico.
“I don’t have a home base,” Caissy said. “I’m not an actual resident of any country at the moment.”
He’s what is known as a digital nomad, a type of professional who has enough flexibility to work remotely while traveling the world, often staying in hotels, hostels, rental homes or recreational vehicles for short bursts of time...
Researchers behind a 2019 ethnographic study of digital nomads noted that the biggest theme that emerged from their data was “the individuals’ quest for flexibility and autonomy at work,” adding, “participants referred not only to professional, but also technological, geographical, and temporal independence.”
It’s not just the cubicle and the commute to the office park that digital nomads want to be liberated from. They also want to be freed from the trappings of the nine-to-five timeframe, the always-on synchronous communication, and the outdated idea that productivity is measured by time spent at a desk, rather than output alone.
Source: Built In
