Member Article
By Avi Cohen, General Manager, Hola
The global pandemic’s impact on our daily lives will still be felt for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, the days of lockdowns, mask mandates and restricted travel seem to be coming to a gradual close. It’s fair to say that we’re all grateful and relieved. However, the pandemic fundamentally changed how we all work and live, with employees formerly restricted to office working giving the licence to work in fully remote or hybrid models – due to this the days of 9 to 5 office working are behind us.
Work From Anywhere
Businesses are now increasingly accepting and even encouraging more flexibility when it comes to where we are permitted to work from. During the pandemic, our homes became our office, gym, cinema and for some of us, the school classrooms. Let’s be honest, it’s been challenging. However, we are no longer restricted to working or living in these environments and the world is quite literally the oyster of workers. This has driven the concept of the “digital nomad”, the idea of workers that have no set location, which become widely accepted and adopted. Companies across the world have allowed their teams to choose to work from home, or abroad – sometimes for months at a time. These are not just freelancers—it includes CEOs, artists, writers, programmers, teachers…the list goes on!
In the U.S., in 2019, independent digital nomads (e.g. freelancers, contractors, etc.) outnumbered remote employee nomads. But during the pandemic, there was a “flippening”. In 2021, remote working digital nomads from the U.S. (10.2 million) far outnumbered independent nomads (5.5 million). Furthermore, countries accepting digital nomads have formalized the process by providing digital nomad visas. With global tourism still reeling from the effects of the…