Remote working abroad

I had lunch with a friend today who has been consistently traveling with his girlfriend for the last year and half while working remote. He’s lived in Europe, multiple places in the U.S., Mexico and South America during this period.

I’m pretty jealous - it’s pretty cool to be able to travel the world and live somewhere new whenever you want to. I’ve always had the travel bug so this is something that I would’ve loved to do especially earlier in my career.

I’ve met quite a few people who have been doing this the last couple of years. I’m curious to see if companies allow this to continue to happen in the next few years especially being in a bear market right now. On one hand, remote working tools have made this possible and we’ve seen very successful companies being built remotely.

On the other hand, I’m not sure I’m a believer that employees are giving their full potential when traveling. I spent a month abroad in Mexico and while I made it work, I admit that I would’ve been much more productive going into the office every day in San Francisco.

It’ll be interesting to watch whether employee happiness or employee productivity wins out in the end.