It displays no sign of stopping, is set for continued expansion, and will most likely grow into our new norm… No! I’m not writing about COVID-19 (which hopefully, at some point, does reach an end). I’m typing about remote work.
Roughly a year ago, as the world went into lockdown, people from everywhere faced many changes in their regular lives. Adopting online skills and new technologies to support communication and virtual gatherings grew into an absolute necessity. While the pandemic led to infinite travel restrictions that shut down borders, kept airlines grounded, and daily commuting limited, the vision of a more remote future was secured.
For many, working remotely from home can mean working from anywhere. Even students like me experience unusual freedom of location independence. No longer are we tied to our school desk, but we can attend classes from our balconies, boyfriends’ or girlfriends’ houses, and even from foreign countries.
Digital nomadism is no entirely new concept, while the term made its first appearance already in the late ’90s (just in time for a new, adventurous, tech-affine generation to be born?). In the book “Digital Nomad” Makimoto and Manners rightfully predicted that tinier and more powerful technologies, along with greater internet connectivity, would move us towards a revolution of how we live, work, and travel. Thanks to COVID, this seems to become our reality even faster than expected.
Living a life with reduced location ties can hold several advantages, which is why I consider remote work and, therefore, location independence to be here to stay.
⏳ Flexible Schedule. Unless your job requires you to be available during certain hours, the best time to work is when you feel the most productive. For many, this does not mean starting at 8 am and keep going till 6 pm. Especially if you’re a creative like me and need to be in the right mindset to work, this can be key.
? Travel the World. As a former exchange student, this one is particularly attractive to me. With a second family living more than 7000 km away, a location-independent life would mean getting the chance to see my friends and family overseas more frequently and for prolonged durations. But even if you don’t have any far-away friends yet, traveling while working can let you visit the incredible places you’ve always wanted to see, experience fascinating cultures, and make new friends on the go.
??? Increased Opportunities. Many of today’s top companies have just now begun offering the option of full or partial remote work, as they recognized the financial benefits for them. For you, this means that you now get the chance to apply for a job literally anywhere in the world. No longer are you required to search for a position close to your home base and have a more extensive range of jobs right at your hands. Your ideal company is located eight flying hours away? Do your research; they might just be looking for remote talent overseas!
WHY GEN Z HAS AN ADVANTAGE
We, Gen Zers, are slowly but surely entering the workforce. With even our youngest behind a screen attending home-school, we already possess the necessary skills and knowledge to work from anywhere and did so even before the pandemic. Although school might not have taught us how to be a freelancer or launch our own online business, we know where to get this information (thanks to you, YouTube).
? Online Communication. Duh. We have grown up saturated with technology. Communicating with someone halfway around the planet is nothing new to us, plus we know what channels to use to do so. Our intense familiarity with technology gets us a head start and makes working remotely part of our intuition.
? Adaptability. It might seem reasonable to assume that our strong reliance on technology led us to be extremely inflexible. However, when we consider how fast technology is changing and how effortlessly we’re able to interact with these developments, it’s evident that we don’t have any problems adjusting, whether to a new practice nor a brand-new program.
??♀️ Conscientiousness. What we definitely don’t want to be is naive, unconscious planet polluters. We’re aware of the problems today’s world holds, whether it’s a lack of diversity, inequality, or climate change. This means that even if we become location-independents, we won’t just mindlessly book flights to wherever and ignore the amount of CO2 released. We will do our research and look for ways to compensate for our Carbon Footprints and find ways to do so. Moreover, making careful, intelligent, and deliberate decisions and building an accurate and effective reality model will be among our core tasks.
While no one exactly knows what the future holds, it’s all but certain that remote work is already playing a significant role in how our workforce is evolving. This already, but even more after the pandemic, gives us massive opportunities in how we design our professional as well as personal lives. Working remotely can bring many freedoms, with the biggest one being location independence. Gen Z now has the chance to leverage its already existing skills and build a foundation for a future full of freedom and adventures.
Whether you want to learn about digital nomads or location independence, in my weekly blog, I will discuss relevant aspects of such lifestyles. So, stay tuned if you want to find out if you can be a digital nomad while being in a committed relationship or what measures you can put in place to help our climate while living location-independent!
Don’t forget to comment down below if you see yourself going location-independent anytime soon! I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the topic!?
Btw, if you’re interested in reading more about Gen Z: https://www.occstrategy.com/media/1806/a-generation-without-borders.pdf
What an amazing idea! And the photography is so enticing! Worworking by a beautiful in the midst of palm trees. Looking forward to hearing more.
Thank you, Judy! Definitely one of my favourite places on earth 😉
Typo- Working by a beautiful pool.
I am just increasing your comments rate. Good luck.
lol, thank you, Luis! ?
Very interesting article and love the visuals! I would love to work location-independent but wouldn’t know what to do exactly.. 🙂
Thank you, Ale!? I’m still trying to figure this out as well, but I guess we can explore that just perfectly during our studies!
Hey Lea!
Amazing blog post (also, beautifully formatted, great job!).
Being born in 1994, I’m sort of not a Millennial anymore, not yet a Gen Z, and somehow also not a Zillennial. However, I can completely relate to the topic of working remotely and just overall nomadism.
My dream is to one day be able to work out of an Airstream trailer with my laptop, taking in nature and the scenery while having all the advantages of a stable, paying job.
Looking forward to reading more!
Hey Olivier! Thank you very much for your comment. I’m sure this is also very true for some people outside of Gen Z (and I wouldn’t be too strict on the borders haha). I encourage you highly to follow your dreams and keep me updated on where this journey leads you!
Have a fabulous day!
Very interesting article, Lea! With your post we can finally see a positive side of Covid-19: it has certainly accellerated a trend that would otherwise have needed way more time to establish itself. Although I miss working from the office, it seems really unlikely that I will be 100% back there after the pandemic 😉
Thank you Sabrina ?! I agree one can also find some positive things about COVID, but like you, I definitely also wish to have in-person gatherings again soon. Even with a location-independent lifestyle, physical human interactions shouldn’t just disappear. I guess, the ideal would probably be to have a flexible mix of everything so everyone can find their own perfect schedule.
Verryyy nice visuals in this post!
Yes, I think after 2020 we have all become very location independent and it has more advantages, than disadvantages. Haven’t we all dreamt about such freedom?? I would never be able to go back home and study from here if we were studying offline. However, the aspect of socialising and building connections is missing.. Curious to read more about different aspects of such lifestyle ?
Thank you for your comment, Sophia!? I couldn’t agree more, the freedom is incredible! Imagine taking a statistics exam until 7pm and then having to commute home ?
Hi Lea!
I had never thought about being location-independent from this perspective before! It certainly made me more appreciative of the lifestyle many of us have been leading for the past months. I love that you included conscientiousness in your list of skills. It definitely reflects how increasingly sensitive people have become to environmental and social issues.
I look forward to learning more about this topic in your upcoming posts! 🙂
Hey Francesca! ? Thank you very much, I appreciate it! Funnily, my next blog post (coming tomorrow) will solely be on carbon emissions and the dilemma of traveling and climate change. Hopefully, you’ll like this one as well. Have a great Easter weekend!?
Hey Lea, nice visuals and cool information regarding digital nomadism! 🙂
Hey, Nicole, ? Thank you very much, have a good Easter weekend!
Hallo Lea,
spannender Blog. Ungewohnt neu und interessant für mich. Mein 1. Eindruck das Startbild mit dem Indoor-Pool und dem Labtop – wie ist das, wenn der ins Wasser fällt? Spritzwasserschutz reicht da nicht mehr.
Datensicherung – Cloud? Nötige Ressourcen / Energieverbrauch und schwups bin ich beim ökologischen Fußabdruck, der im Abschnitt Gewissenhaftigkeit angesprochen wird – 2 ? dafür.
Menschen waren bisher länger Nomaden als Sesshaft, von daher finde ich kann sich die Generation X was von der Generation Z abschauen. Reduzierte Standortbindung als Option für den sukzessiven Ausstieg aus dem aktuellen Arbeitsleben.
Last but not least ich habe ein wenig die Gender Schreibweise (Gendersternchen) vermisst. Vielleicht ist das ein typisch deutsches Thema. ?
Freue mich auf mehr.
Hallo Feili, ?
schön, dass du meinen Blog-Post gelesen hast und danke für das ausgiebige Feedback!
Das mit dem Laptop im Pool ist eine riskante Geschichte, weshalb ich zum Zwecke dieses Posts mit ein wenig Photoshop nachgeholfen habe. ? Der ökologische Fussabdruck ist ein sehr relevantes Thema für meine Generation, weshalb ich mich auch weiterhin damit befassen werde in meinen folgenden Blogs.
Betreffend des Gendersternchen, wirfst du bei mir Fragen auf. Im Deutschen achte ich sehr auf eine gerechte Schreibweise, im Englischen hingegen nicht, da die englische Sprache grundsätzlich geschlechtsneutraler ist. Ich bin mir jetzt aber doch unsicher, ob ich mich da nochmals informieren muss (werde ich tun)!
Liebe Grüsse und alles Gute!
Lea
Hallo Lea,
ich habe deinen Blog auf deutsch gelesen und da sind mir Studenten und Freunde statt Student*innen und Freund*innen aufgefallen. Was sagt das über mich? …
Auf englisch liest sich dein Blog gleich anders -für mich. Die Englische Sprache betrachte ich wie du eher als geschlechtsneutral.
Ich möchte mehr über das neue Nomadentum lesen.
Lieben Gruß und weiter so!
Feili
Hey Feili! Ach so! “Lost in translation”, würde ich da wohl sagen ?. Danke für den Kommentar!
Ich freue mich, dass du mehr darüber lesen möchtest.
Liebe Grüsse
Lea ?
Love the visuals! Very interesting topic Lea! And I love your perspective 🙂
Thank you so much, Bianca! I appreciate it. ?