No, remote working does not look like this
Since a few weeks I’m doing my work for a Dutch company from abroad. I am a product developer for a renewable energy company and my CEO agreed to my remote working proposal. I’m currently in Portugal, enjoying the surf and the Euro championship madness. And working, off course.
My friends said: ‘Send us a picture of you working from a cool spot!’ so we took above picture. It’s exactly the kind of picture you’d see on news articles about working remotely or digital nomadism published by sources that are not really doing it themselves. Just look at the first page of Google Images for ‘Digital Nomad’.
At least I had some kind of deskish bar thing. The people in these pictures are literally ON the beach and use their legs as tables. Terrible palmtree reflections in their screen seem not to bother them.
However appealing they may look, these scenes are very untrue.
- Beaches have sand. Sand and laptops are not a good match
- Beaches have wind. Again, no good
- Beaches have no shade. Dot.
What working while travelling ACTUALLY looks like:
Coworking spaces are popping up everywhere. It’s great if you like slow travelling and like to meet local entrepreneurs. Working from a coworking space has some nice advantages:
- It’s a happy place for electronics because of the lack of sun/sand/wind
- You actually get work done. Straight 9 hours of work no problema!
- You meet the city residents who can tell you a lot more of the city than your Lonely Planet.
Originally published at fixtrs.wordpress.com
