Tried and Tested! Life as a Digital Nomad

Transitioning from a corporate career to that of a full-time writer involved many changes and adjustments in my life, both professional and personal, but one of the most intriguing things I found myself contemplating was the idea of a digital nomad approach to working. As an office-bound worker for all my career to date (business trips aside), the whole idea seemed like a some sort of mystical fantasy that would be always out of reach, and perhaps was not all it was cracked up to be anyway, “yes, just keep thinking that”, I thought. As I went through weeks, even months, of adjustment it became apparent that it was no longer out of reach but also beckoned with a strange sense of allure.  

In a gallant effort to manage the tug-o-war between discipline and temptation, I pushed away the siren calls and convinced myself that the relevant question which needed answering was whether this was a really a productive way to work and achieve one’s goals, or was it something that people did who didn’t have real jobs. 

The format of working as a digital nomad is part of the wider topic of remote working. However, a note of further clarification is required. Remote working can include working from home, working at a co-working space, being a digital nomad some of the time, and in fact potentially working anywhere. But for it to be called "remote" it must mean that the worker has some sort of base that he is tied to, somewhere to be remote from. The digital nomad on the other hand, at least theoretically, not only works anywhere but is also base-free: in other words not tied to any location. Technically, a full time digital nomad cannot be considered as working remotely.

Remote working seemed to be something that was suddenly imposed upon us, at scale, when the COVID lock downs came along. When normality appeared to return, both employees and employers were left thinking about the whole topic with a new sense of potential and priority.

In fact neither of these notions tells the full story. A survey cited in the July 17, 2017 edition of 1843 magazine (published by The Economist) said that in 2016 66% of employers allowed their staff to work remotely compared to 34% in 2005. This is interesting because it is, of course, pre-pandemic. For many of us COVID was the first time we had to work from home on a sustained basis. Yes, it was forced, but it nevertheless introduced to us a new experience. But as these numbers suggest, the option of remote working was hardly a new idea.

As any Google search will reveal, there are numerous studies examining the productivity of remote working. Such studies show that the productivity of remote work varies significantly depending on, among other things, the nature of the job, the individual’s work habits, the level of support provided by the employer, and the technologies used for remote work. As with much survey work, a crystal clear, definitive answer may not be obviously apparent. However, it does seem to be clear that many employees report increased productivity when working remotely. This is often attributed to factors such as reduced commute time, fewer workplace distractions, and the ability to create a highly customized work environment. These are all positive factors that motivate people and, as I know from the sales teams with which I have worked, motivated and happy teams are the ones which make the most money.

So I would posit that remote working has been on the minds of workers and employees for at least a couple of decades, and that COVID had the effect of suddenly promoting the whole topic to the front and centre of corporate thinking about the location of workers, and the tantalizing possibility of this becoming more important as a driver of future productivity.

I personally did not enjoy the experience of working from home but, of course, working from home is only one form of working remotely. Being a digital nomad is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Co-working may be something in the middle, at least conceptually. COVID-style working from home is nowhere near the same as being a digital nomad—being "locked-in" is hardly nomadic. Nevertheless, it was the experience, at least partly, of not being in the office but still being able to effectively do your job that made people realize that the idea of a somewhat nomadic working lifestyle might be a realistic option.

Although I had a recently refurbished home office, which was perfect for most of my needs once I left the more gregarious world of corporate life, the writing of Palace of Ghosts presented me with a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to experience first-hand the phenomenal rise of the co-working trend and, perhaps, go the whole hog and try out the life of a digital nomad.

I must admit that at first, I was sceptical about the whole thing. On one level it seemed to me that corporations might have spotted an opportunity to off-load part of their deal with workers that involved them sacrificing their time, their family life and leisure time, in exchange for a salary, benefits and the provision of an attractive office working environment. Pre-COVID offices were getting more and more attractive: many had kitchens and canteens; lounges with comfy sofas; sleeping capsules; and even bars with draught beer on tap that was free! This was all expensive, and many a CFO winced when the bill came in. Boards of Directors must have wondered what had happened to the good old days of the shop floor and a typing pool. 

Then the pandemic crashed the party. COVID forced many of us to embrace the work-from-home idea: there was no choice. Whilst the workforce struggled to adjust, companies realized all of a sudden that they could reduce their office rental expenses by having employees give up the privacy of their homes for the purpose of conducting company business. YouTube is full of videos of employees caught embarrassingly off guard at home while on video conference calls (admittedly, most of these were staged, but they nevertheless made the point). However, it did seem that employees could be convinced that companies were doing them a favour, in the name of flexibility, by having them use their own private home space for the benefit of the company. There was no additional cost to the company and no additional compensation was provided to their employees.

Now that COVID-induced working from home has thankfully disappeared, many companies still want their employees to spend at least a couple of days using their homes as an extension of their office. Some employees seem to be fine with that too.

Working from home does have significant downsides, not least pressure on relationships and family life. Co-working, it might seem, offers a compromise, combining greater freedom and flexibility with the structure and work ethic that an office environment might be thought of as encouraging and is not as “out there” as the idea of adopting the digital nomad work format.

However, again I was sceptical. If it is an office you want, then why travel the world in search of one? Despite offering employees the flexibility to work from home, most also have their own office space available in the locations where most of the employees live. I agree that for self-employed people and freelancers, for whom working in an office might be a novelty, they may hold some appeal.

Some may be attracted by the myriad of other services co-working spaces offer. A quick survey of such services includes work space and furniture (of course); high speed internet; meeting rooms; printing; refreshments; front desk services; security; community; lounge areas; privacy areas; IT support; fitness facilities; bike storage; and pet-friendly spaces. All are packaged and sold to cater to any, well most, budgets. It appears that about 70% of co-working start-ups become profitable after two years, however most of these tend to be in rural areas and provincial towns. Profitability in vibrant city districts tends to be more elusive. So one might conclude that co-working spaces appeal to not only the self-employed or freelancers, but also to those who live in more remote areas. Not the big cities and not the top tourist destinations. For corporations, co-working spaces might serve to complement their geographic footprint, but it could be equally likely that they have little relevance to any employee of a multinational corporation.

Being a digital nomad can, in theory, include both or neither working from home and co-working facilities. But with companies that feel the need for a modicum of control, for the most part, they want to know with some element of predictability, where their employee actually is when not on vacation, or, sometimes even when they are on vacation. (It is now an office joke when the predictable pre-vacation email circulates internally, saying that the imminent vacationer’s destination may have "limited internet coverage": corporate-speak translation to normal English means “I am not going to answer your calls”). 

Being in the office, working from home, or in a co-working space may all be acceptable remote working options for employers who want to know where the people they are paying are. The idea of an employee adopting a digital nomad work style is more scary to many senior people managers. What if, for example, the moment the Zoom call with its super-imposed background winds up and the screen goes blank, the employee runs down the beach, strides into the sparkling blue sea, a beer in hand along with all his mates, great lads who were doing their best just a few minutes earlier to keep down the background noise during the video call.

It never seemed likely to me that the digital nomad style of working would ever become a realistic option in the corporate world. But now that option was clearly available to me, so in the name of investigative occupational research, I took it. I travelled, wrote, and worked. I quickly realized that the co-working experience, at least the one where you pay to be in an office with a bunch of strangers, wasn't for me. Instead, I sought inspiration, paused where I found it and wrote, always for free. No air con; no coffee machine; no community; no printer; nor bean bags. Just pure inspiration of my own choosing, without the mental or physical constraints of having to work within somebody else's template for an optimal office style of working.

I did write large sections of Palace of Ghosts in my home office and in several different libraries in Singapore, especially the magnificent main National Library Board building on Victoria Street, which houses the largest collection of Southeast Asian materials in Asia, probably even globally. However, I also experienced what it was like to be a digital nomad: the romanticised image of working on a laptop on top of a mountain, by the beach, on a boat, or in the forest by a stream (ok, the last one is a bit of a stretch). So I travelled and worked. I wrote in several different locations in Mauritius. I went to Manila's Intramuros, the original Pearl of the Orient, for inspiration. I wrote in several places in Portugal, in London’s British Library at St. Pancras and in the crisp cold air of the French Alps in January. I went to Bali, and have returned there several times since, where the digital nomad lifestyle has really taken hold and the Island is also experiencing a boom in the co-working services business.

In fact, the Indonesian island of Bali justifies a few more sentences on the topic, because it is in the midst of an intriguing competitive battle between newly established professional co-working services companies, with all of their sales packages and promotions, and numerous other entities simply making it easier and more comfortable to work at their properties free of any fees. Among the former there are now plenty of co-working businesses offering some pretty good facilities; among the latter are literally many hundreds of cafes, restaurants, bars, hotel lobbies and homestays that are clearly designed for and proactively seeking to attract digital nomads. They offer pretty good WiFi connectivity, comfy chairs with "work height" tables often in a dedicated area, shade, and ceiling fans in a mostly outdoor setting, and away from areas with excessive noise such as main roads, and areas where kids congregate. No separate payments are expected by the proprietor, only their confidence in the strong possibility that you will buy a coffee or eat some food at some stage during the day. Of all the places I have sampled, Bali easily wins in its efforts to cater to digital nomads specifically and remote working more generally.  

Co-working service providers are all well and good but I found their spaces to be often noisy and distracting. They tend to try and sell themselves on the networking and community experiences they claim to offer, which is great if that’s what you are looking for. For myself, I was looking for quiet inspiration from interesting and intriguing surroundings, without disturbances. Being able to swim with whales just after sunrise and then retire to my lodgings to think and focus somehow made me want to write. Skiing in the morning, observing the antics of various people on the piste and breathing the air at 2,400 meters provided me with all the creative energy I needed during the afternoon of the same day to power through a chapter section that had been holding me up.

Trying out the digital nomad lifestyle was an interesting journey that writing Palace of Ghosts took me on. It took me about a month to get my brain to stop thinking I was on holiday. That I had to stick to a routine to reach my writing objectives; that I had to maintain my fitness program; that I had to plan ahead shopping for groceries; and that I had to go to bed and wake up at sensible intervals. All those normal things that you do in a day-to-day existence and not just drop them all the moment you step off the plane in a foreign land. It’s important to plan well in advance, to assess your needs, priorities, and working style to determine whether such digital nomadic working is right for you. Simple, practical matters when writing, such as having a solution thought out in advance if you find part of your research was unexpectedly substandard and needs redoing. It’s not so easy when you know that the only way of addressing the matter lies in personally consulting a primary and undigitised source that lies in a library half a world away. Such scenarios need to be considered and planned for.

Nevertheless, to have a fresh set of potential sources of inspiration to motivate and excite was of great value. It was, and is, one of the most exhilarating life changes I have experienced after having been anchored to a corporate office environment for over 30 years. Being a digital nomad is not something I would do full-time, but it does allow you to fully customize your own working style in a way that works for you, according to your own standards and priorities. There are many ways of working and leaving the corporate world to become a writer meant that the digital nomad work style now became an option, another format for working if desired or required. Problem-solving comes in many forms. Utilizing the digital nomad format of working offers an additional solution to choose from when considering how best to progress any particular piece of work. 

A makeshift office with a view

Despite the available research and surveys, many people continue to worry about the trade-off between productivity and motivation or quality and quantity; or loss of control and breakdown of process. Some, such as Elon Musk, fret about the morality of it all: that it is somehow unfair on those who don’t work remotely, as if chosen occupations, career decisions and the sacrifices people make for their employers have anything to do with fairness. It is a current of thought that seems to tie managers and business leaders up in knots. 

So, what should companies do? There is nothing wrong with offering a fair wage in return for getting employees to do what is required of them. It’s a basic quid pro quo: a salary is offered and in exchange the employee should follow company rules and processes. As one HR professional once privately described it to me, they have to “suck it up”—that’s the deal. The equation breaks down, however, when companies start to pretend it’s something different and employees, especially younger ones, start to believe it. 

Just be honest, that’s the policy that companies should follow but few do, at least in my experience. I would not go as far as Elon Musk and talk about morality, but I do think it’s reasonable for companies to say that if they are paying a wage then working in a place that they provide for recipients of that wage is part of the deal. The nomadic lifestyle for digital workers is something different. I can’t see how corporate life and nomadic life can co-exist. That is not to make a judgement on one or the other, rather a choice people have to make. But then who can really know? Back in 2005 only 34 out of every 100 companies believed in remote working. Now, only 18 years later, nearly all of them do.