Many employees have gained experience of working from home over recent months. However, a digital nomadic life is still a far cry from the reality of how most employees work. Lorenz Ramseyer, an expert in location-independent working, explains what lies behind the digital nomadic life and why companies should invest in location-independent working.
Lorenz Ramseyer: digital nomads are employees, freelancers or entrepreneurs who mainly work with digital technologies. Laptops, smartphones and various online applications are their key tools, and they don’t generally require any infrastructure apart from electricity and a wireless internet connection. This means that digital nomads can work from anywhere and often lead a location-independent life or have several places of residence or work.
No, it is far more than that. It is a lifestyle all of its own. The aim of digital nomads is not to become a millionaire in the conventional sense but instead – as I put it – a time-millionaire. Time for travel, family and fun is something many digital nomads consider important.
Over half of Swiss employees are what are known as knowledge workers. They are not tied to a specific working environment which means they can work from anywhere. A third of them also take advantage of this opportunity occasionally. A digital nomadic life isn’t restricted to freelancers abroad. It can also be integrated into the everyday routines of permanent staff – on a selective basis and in Switzerland.
To prepare for a new dawn in the world of work, much more work will be done on a location-independent basis in future. Managers and employees will communicate differently, and will use new channels and new forms of cooperation. This requires training.
It pays dividends in lots of ways – the younger generation is already calling for greater flexibility in existing working models. Companies that meet this requirement become attractive and have satisfied, well-motivated employees. Companies also benefit in terms of economic viability: for example, video conferences are shorter and more efficient than conventional meetings and travel costs are eliminated. The last point is the impact on society as a whole: it improves work-life balance and could even stem emigration from remote areas because the place of work and residence are no longer so closely linked.
Yes. These jobs also involve administrative tasks which can be carried out on the train, outside or in a shared workspace.
Some fears are justified – we will have a global employment market for jobs in future. The group of applicants will then not just be restricted to people living in the surrounding area of a workplace, but anyone who meets the requirements of the job profile. Those not familiar with the tools required to take part in this digital jobs market are at a huge disadvantage. The digital gap is growing.
We’re a bit too sluggish for my liking. Some countries not dissimilar to Switzerland are much more advanced. For example, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands, where a law was recently adopted stipulating that every full-time employee is entitled to a day working from a home office. There is a lack of such initiatives in Switzerland.
One reason is because many companies – even after the period of working from home due to the coronavirus – still have a strong culture of being present at the workplace: if you’re there it means you’re working. And if you’re not on site, the presumption is that you’re not working. Another is probably because we’re doing almost too well so there’s a lack of pressure. Pressure is nevertheless important because the digital transformation of the world of work is not a process that will knock politely on the door to ask to come in. It appears suddenly on the horizon and puts us under intense pressure. This also presents a challenge for policymakers.
Lots of digital nomads are freelancers which means they have little protection under employment law. They have to pay their own pension and insurance contributions. In view of this, we’re in talks with trade unions and professional associations where we can discuss such issues in depth. Tax is also something to consider: people are generally liable for tax in the country where they work. There are some grey areas though: for example, if someone de-registers in Switzerland, travels to another country on a tourist visa and works on digital projects there. These forms of virtual work are over-stretching tax authorities in my view.
The exploitation of this imbalance – known as geoarbitrage – can clearly represent a new form of colonialism. Large companies take advantage of this by making employees redundant and hiring freelancers elsewhere to cut costs. In my experience, the individual, digital nomadic life tends to be a form of development aid. Many digital nomads work on development projects or cooperate with local staff, providing them with access to a new international market.
I find SimpleMind great for creative tasks. It’s a mobile phone app that allows you to create mindmaps and notes very easily – for example, while listening to a podcast at the same time. For holding video conferences, I recommend appear.in. With appear.in, up to four participants can hold a conference on an equal footing directly in the web browser without any download or passwords. I use Trello as an organizational tool for most of my projects. Tasks are created, scheduled and assigned to various team members with virtual Post-it notes.
Lorenz Ramseyer has focused intensively on location-independent working models since 2006. He is President of the Swiss Digital Nomads’ Association and provides advice and coaching on location-independent working. He originally graduated with a teaching degree, but then became an IT project manager after obtaining further qualifications and has now worked as an IT consultant for many years on a partially self-employed basis.
