The Future Of Workspaces Is Here
Is Your Business Ready?
During Covid we heard a lot about "The Future of Workspaces". Well the future is already here, and that future is choice. No one workplace solution can be claimed to be the one that will dominate in the future.
No one workplace solution will meet everyone's needs and multiple options are already available. They include:
- Work from home full time
- Work from home part time
- Work from a central corporate office
- Work from a local co-working centre
- and the latest option - Work as a "Digital Nomad"
In this article we are going to look at this latest workplace option. A "Digital Nomad" is someone who works online and can do that work from any location with wifi. And we are not just talking about the local coffee shop. As of November 2022 there are 49 countries that offer "Digital Nomad Visas" of varying benefits.
Essentially, a digital nomad visa allows a digital worker to stay in the country for an extended period of time (typically 12 months) without being employed locally. In some of these countries (but not all) there is no requirement to pay income tax in that country because they recognise you are not being employed in that country.
Why would a country welcome digital nomads? Even where no income tax is being collected, the digital nomad is spending money in local businesses and supporting the local economy so their governments recognise that there is a financial benefit to allowing these workers to live in the country.
How Did The Digital Nomad Trend Come About?
In recent years a number of societal and technological changes have occurred that combined to give rise to the digital nomad.
- Covid severely curtailed tourism and for many countries and this severely impacted the local economies. Having well paid foreigners staying for an extended period helps to offset this.
- Covid also gave rise to many new technologies initially designed to allow people to work from home, but those technologies are not limited by location, only by internet access.
- The forced work from home during covid meant that employers developed systems that enabled them to manage offsite employees more effectively
- Home-schooling and online schooling has become more acceptable and of better quality and is no longer seen as a hindrance to further education.
Of course, to be a digital nomad you either have to be a self employed freelancer or have an employer who is happy to accommodate remote work and sometimes challenging time zone differences. If you fall into one of these groups you could consider setting up in Bali, on a Greek island, in the Caribbean, Iceland or in any one of the 49 countries ready to welcome workers like you.
