Remote and Nomadic Lifestyles Our New Post-COVID Normal?
By: Amy Sasser Sorrells
Tags: Work From Home, Work Life Balance, Startup, Life Lessons, Corporate Culture

Whitney Durmick may be way ahead of a future lifestyle trend, although she might not realize it. For the past two years, Whitney has been leading a self-styled nomadic life, moving from place to place, setting up shop in different locations across the nation to live, work and explore. Doing so has allowed her to scratch that travel and adventure itch without missing a beat with her career. And I can attest to that, as she is part of our Oracle for Startups team and continues to be a star performer — no matter where she is calling home. In fact, I believe it has made her an even better employee.

“I wasn’t trying to be trendy,” she says, citing skyrocketing rents in her previous home city of Denver, CO as a major motivator. “I crunched the numbers and realized I could either travel or pay rent. So I chose to travel. It was a decision borne from indecision.”

Having the option to work remotely, and from anywhere, has helped Whitney identify her “release valve” that prevents burnout. Whitney dialed in to work from farm cottages, truck stops, even a remote yurt in the mountains of Malibu. She rarely takes vacation, because in her mind, “my whole life feels like a vacation.”

While we aren’t all suited for a nomadic existence — you know, kids and such — COVID-19 has set a new paradigm on how we view work-life balance. We’ve all been on a universal work-from-home experiment, one that has for the most part been a success, thanks to cloud connectivity and video technologies like Zoom. It’s opening up new ways of thinking about work.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says data from his company seems to point to that direction.

“A whole bunch of people are going to live a few months here and a few months there and kind of move around,” Chesky said on a recent Recode Decode podcast with Kara Swisher. “Work from home can pretty soon be work from any home. And why couldn’t it be.”

Regardless of your definition of “remote” work, businesses worldwide are rethinking their workplace and working policies, which can provide benefits for employers and employees.

A recent survey from Upwork, a global freelancing platform, has found the remote-work experience has gone much better than expected, with 56% of hiring managers saying the shift to remote work has been positive, while only one in ten feel it has been worse than expected. 61.9% of hiring managers say their workforce will be more remote going forward, and the expected growth rate of full-time remote work over the next five years has doubled, from 30% to 65%.

Also from the survey, employees cited many benefits of remote-work, tops being: lack of commute, fewer unnecessary meetings, greater productivity, greater autonomy, and reduced distractions, all of which were shared by more than 40% of respondents. Negatives include technology issues and reduced team cohesion due to not being in-person.

Overall, the survey shows that the good far outweighs the bad. The Upwork data is just one of many surveys pointing in this direction.

Another huge benefit of remote work: tech talent acquisition will no longer be limited to the coasts. That enlarges the talent pool and allows individuals to live anywhere, potentially helping driving growth of smaller urban cities. Employees can have better quality of life, talent/hiring pools expand, and the environment can breathe a sigh of relief due to reduced commutes.

“The paradigm of working in an office is altered forever… for many things employees are much more productive working remote, and that the talent base can be opened up, suddenly you can hire from a hundred thousand cities not a couple of cities. I’m on the side of flexibility and the trend towards remote work,” said Chesky.

Of course, not all jobs can be remote. And in-person communications have huge value. The future will most likely be more flexible remote-work policies, like co-working satellite type offices where employees can meet in-person as needed. Less traditional nine-to-five, daily schedules at the big corporate headquarters. Facebook, Twitter, Shopify and many others have publicly stated their future remote-work policies. While other companies are taking a more cautious approach, it seems all are open-minded to the idea of working remotely.

Veteran entrepreneur and author Arianna Huffington believes companies will adopt a “hybrid” model. During a recent WSJ Tech Health virtual conference, the Thrive CEO and founder stated that “every company will decide their own hybrid mixture” but we will move to a hybrid model because “we’ve seen we can be productive with remote-work environments.”

Thanks to Oracle’s forward-thinking mindset, a majority of our Oracle for Startups team has been remote for years, so I relate to the benefits and negatives of the Upwork data. I whole-heartedly believe it makes for a better quality of life and higher productivity. It does, however, require being intentional with “over-communicating” and ensuring your messages are clear, heard, and not misconstrued. If possible, always using video on your calls so you can see non-verbal cues and connect better. As with everything, there are always trade-offs, but we overall operate better remotely and are genuinely happier and more productive.

“Working remotely has been a game-changer in my life,” said Whitney. “At first it was just nice to be able to stay home with my dog and skip the obnoxious commute. But I’ve developed habits that help me reach my biggest priorities: health, productivity, and inspiration.”

Here’s another example of inspiring remote work: Derek Andersen, founder and CEO of Startup Grind, just set out on his summer adventure driving cross-country with his family in an RV. He’ll be working, too. Talk about a unique work-life balance.

Bottom line: The paradigm has shifted and remote-work will be our new reality. And that’s good because it’s promising and beneficial on so many levels. Whether many adopt Whitney’s nomadic lifestyle remains to be seen. But if it happens, she can consider herself a pioneer. Don’t believe me? Check out Whitney’s blog to learn more about her unique remote-work experiment. It’s a fantastic read.