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The need to micromanage some people like this is also not unique to digital nomads, so I don't see how the time needed to navigate this issue from a management

The need to micromanage some people like this is also not unique to digital nomads, so I don't see how the time needed to navigate this issue from a management level is any different for a digital nomad vs anybody else? There are plenty of in-office workers who do the exact same thing, they just might be sitting at their desk all day waiting for something. In fact they might even give off an even greater illusion of doing something/being productive simply because you can visually see them, not because of actually doing anything. I honestly think a lot of office workers/remove workers who aren't digital nomads do the exact same things being purported with respect to amount of time actually spent working. They just may not in a fancy location and because you can visually see them it brings false sense of productivity. That said, I'm not saying that I nor many others sit on my thumbs and do nothing if I have no tasks assigned. In my thoughts that is part of the expectations being set/what my responsibilities are (i.e. setting expectations/it being know that my job role is not a task mule). I agree that this can be an issue, but I also think this issue is not unique to digital nomads. This all still seems like a hiring and management issue to me more than a digital nomad issue. How I see it is that if somebody is needing to be micromanaged and you don't desire that, remote or not, give them a warning/communicate and if it continues, let them go.

PragmaticPulp 3y ago
> so I don't see how the time needed to navigate this issue from a management level is any different for a digital nomad vs anybody else? The point is that they’re not the same in practice. Hypothetically, a perfect digital nomad would be indistinguishable from any other remote employee. But in practice, there’s something about the digital nomad lifestyle that incentivizes people to minimize their workload at the expense of their peers/manager more than the average employee: They’re traveling the world and want to get back to doing the travel thing by doing as little work as they can get away with. Having someone in constantly changing time zones is also a pain for communication. Having them in constantly different backgrounds (often noisy or shared) is a challenge. Having them on spotty WiFi that cuts out and makes them unable to do their job is a challenge. All of these things in theory could be avoided, but in practice it always turns out to be a huge hassle to try to mix digital nomads with a team that’s trying to get work done. About the only time it works out is when it’s for contract work where the deadline isn’t urgent and you’re paying a project-based fee that is agreed up front by both parties. This moves all of the incentive to do good work and deliver on time over to the nomad, which works much better with trying to balance against the whole world travel nomad thing. > This all still seems like a hiring and management issue Which is why I fixed it by declining to hire or manage digital nomads as FTEs. I only work on project-based contracts and it’s much more aligned now. The idea that it’s the manager’s responsibility to extract work from the employee is exactly the mentality that I was describing: This mindset that underperformance is only the manager’s fault leads to a requirement of heavy micromanagement, but it’s exasperated by digital nomads who are extra incentivized to minimize their work/fool their managers so they have more time to vacation.

PragmaticPulp 3y ago

> so I don't see how the time needed to navigate this issue from a management level is any different for a digital nomad vs anybody else? The point is that they’re not the same in practice. Hypothetically, a perfect digital nomad would be indistinguishable from any other remote employee. But in practice, there’s something about the digital nomad lifestyle that incentivizes people to minimize their workload at the expense of their peers/manager more than the average employee: They’re traveling the world and want to get back to doing the travel thing by doing as little work as they can get away with. Having someone in constantly changing time zones is also a pain for communication. Having them in constantly different backgrounds (often noisy or shared) is a challenge. Having them on spotty WiFi that cuts out and makes them unable to do their job is a challenge. All of these things in theory could be avoided, but in practice it always turns out to be a huge hassle to try to mix digital nomads with a team that’s trying to get work done. About the only time it works out is when it’s for contract work where the deadline isn’t urgent and you’re paying a project-based fee that is agreed up front by both parties. This moves all of the incentive to do good work and deliver on time over to the nomad, which works much better with trying to balance against the whole world travel nomad thing. > This all still seems like a hiring and management issue Which is why I fixed it by declining to hire or manage digital nomads as FTEs. I only work on project-based contracts and it’s much more aligned now. The idea that it’s the manager’s responsibility to extract work from the employee is exactly the mentality that I was describing: This mindset that underperformance is only the manager’s fault leads to a requirement of heavy micromanagement, but it’s exasperated by digital nomads who are extra incentivized to minimize their work/fool their managers so they have more time to vacation.