7 ms·
European Remote Worker Index
- NKosmatos 3y agoThis article/post was circulated by many news sites in Greece and created a lot of discussions. I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed, but I can understand the ranking based on various data. For people interested, Greece is quite nice for remote working, with many nice places to live/work/enjoy.
- guillermoscript 3y agocould you give more details ?
- stavros 3y agoI live in Thessaloniki, and the weather is always great (maybe too great, we haven't had almost any rain this year, due to climate change), the city has a vibrant night life, great restaurants, a fairly good variety of things to do, is very bicycle-friendly if you live near the waterfront, relatively cheap, etc. It has its downsides, but I really can't believe it's one of the worst for remote workers.
- raverbashing 3y agoOne of my pet peeves is the description of "great weather" What's great weather for some is literal hell on earth for some other person
- stavros 3y agoWell, you know, sunny and pleasant six months of the year, rainy for three, boiling alive for three.
- seydor 3y agoAs a remote worker you have to deal with an arbitrary and dysfunctional state and bureaucracy. Also international schools, healthcare and safety matter to workers, as opposed to tourists
- irusensei 3y agoUnless I misunderstood Poland has put some inconvenient regulations that discourage companies from allowing remote work. It requires a special contract otherwise you are compelled to go a number of days per month to work.
- GrumpySloth 3y agoI work based on a standard labour law contract remotely and I’m not compelled to fulfil any quota of days worked from office.
- ajuc 3y agoPolish system is weird in that most people in IT create one-person companies and work on B2B contracts (and then there's no such restrictions in addition to tax benefits once you earn more than about 10 000 PLN per month which almost everybody in IT do). There are other benefits you miss on tho (like lower retirement unless you opt-in to pay higher tax, no mandatory 26-day vacations per year unless you bargain for it with your company, etc.)
- tcmb 3y agoThe weather doesn't seem to have been a criterion, does it? If I think about places in Europe where I would like to live and work remotely, I'm thinking Portugal, Spain, Italy. Certainly not Luxembourg, Denamrk, Netherlands and Iceland... Also, I've been to Luxembourg myself, and the people I met there were drawing a Luxembourg salary but living across the border in France, because real estate is just much, much cheaper there.
- rcarmo 3y agoI’m based in Portugal, and found it ridiculous it wasn’t mentioned in any category.
- MrDresden 3y agoSpent dome time in Peniche last year working remote. Loved it and highly recommend.
- chefandy 3y agoSeems weird. I don’t know anyone that lived in Portugal that didn’t love it. Maybe the authors were from way up north and consider summers that don’t even frost over once to be stiflingly hot. Personally, I consider the percentage of the year I need protective clothing to safely go outdoors a big factor for happiness.
- herbst 3y agoI felt same for Switzerland, but then it ranked the most expensive countries and I understood what went wrong.
- tcmb 3y agoOlomouc is misplaced on the map, that's Switzerland, and not Czechia?
- The_Colonel 3y agoPlzen (another Czech city) is also shown in Germany.
- twiss 3y agoThat one has a line pointing to (approximately) the right position. Olomouc doesn't, though.
- The_Colonel 3y agoI see, I misinterpreted the line. It's just confusing overall, my first guess that Luxembourg (the other end of the line) is the label of the number 9, located in Munich.
- twiss 3y agoYeah, I agree, it would've been clearer if they'd placed the circles in the correct locations and then put the line between the circle and label. The ones in the Netherlands might've been too close together (with this circle size), though.
- inertiatic 3y agoThe fact that the stats that drive this could be weighted in any arbitrary way makes the overall rankings pretty worthless in my eyes. And looking at the top 10 vs bottom 10 kind of validates these thoughts. I would much rather live in most of the bottom ten than in the top ten, if we're talking long term.
- peoplefromibiza 3y agoIMO this is seriously flawed. Any index like this where Berlin or Barcelona or Switzerland or any other city/country with a mature tech ecosystem (or a very nice weathe, why not?) are missing from the top spots is basically useless. For example: nobody in Europe ever talks about Luxembourg and AFAIK even less when talking about working remotely. It might be attractive in principle, as the richest country in Europe with the highest average salary or for being at the center of continental Europe, but it's hardly a destination people dream about. Reykjavik too, been there a few times, it's not the place you want to go spend a long time working remotely, unless you are Icelandic. It's simply too small and isolated. I would not bring.my family to live there just to work remotely.
- Blahah 3y agoTo be fair, if you make life decisions based on listicles on the website of a printer manufacturer, you might love living in Luxembourg. And if you're white, middle class, and hate having interesting experiences. For everyone else there's Berlin, Lisbon, Prague, Milan, Copenhagen... Essentially every exquisite city in Europe is missing from the list.
- petre 3y agoI remember a Bulgarian who was working for the EU told me Luxembourg was crazy boring and that she was happy that the EU bureaucracy moved her (and some other second class Eastern European employees) to another more vibrant city in Eastern Europe. Milan, no. Crazy expensive and too sophisticated. Bergamo, yes. Prague, too full of tourists. Plzen or Brno, better. Lisbon, same. Berlin has crappy broadband and it takes forever to get it hooked up. I'd much rather work in Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg. They have good beer and Gruß Gott. Copenhagen? No way. Crazy expensive, the weather is just crap even compared to London. The countryside is much nicer in Denmark if you can put up with the weather.
- gumballindie 3y ago> Barcelona Last time I was there beaches were swamped by drug dealers and the city by pickpockets. Berlin is not as bad but it’s not great either. Wouldnt recommend them to anyone.
- intunderflow 3y agoI live in Aarhus and its pretty good here, but I do think the lack of international airports nearby can make things pretty painful for remote folks who plan to visit other countries and family abroad. The nearest airport (Billund) is at least 90 minutes away.
- j7ake 3y agoThe "happiness" index is not applicable to remote workers. Happiness index is essentially measured by asking locals how happy they are. This has nothing to do with whether an outsider (e.g. an American) would become happier if they moved to that country. It is more of a cultural indicator of how they approach and view life. Countries where the culture is to complain a lot get a 'low' happiness index (e.g. France and Italy), while people who are are pragmatic and rarely complain get a 'high' happiness index (e.g. Denmark). Asking locals how happy they are has little information whether an outsider would be happy living there. Just an example: Dutch people are very happy living in the Netherlands. But someone who is used to living in a city with good restaurants and good weather will absolutely hate the Netherlands. Biking is not fun when it's windy and rainy outside, but Dutch people don't mind it because they think it's normal. Dutch people also don't care about food as much as Italians (a thick piece of bread with a thin piece of slice is a lunch), and the stark difference in quality of restaurants between Netherlands and Italy shows this.
- eptcyka 3y agoI love the way you describe dutch lunches - a thin piece of slice. I will use this in the future to refer to lackluster food.
- j7ake 3y agoIt was a typo, but happy that it worked out as imagery.
- NooneAtAll3 3y agowhat is the original word?
- twiss 3y agoStereotypically, probably "thin slice of cheese" :)
- alkonaut 3y ago
- PedroBatista 3y agoI "love" Brother for their printers, but please stick to that. This list is as random and arbitrary as someone wiping their ass and produce an equivalent list. The only saving grace is the context: it's the UK site so maybe it's tailored for those people but I still have my doubts.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- politelemon 3y agoMethodology should also include broadband availability and reliability.
- TacticalCoder 3y ago> Methodology should also include broadband availability and reliability. I live on the country n 1 on that list: Luxembourg. 100% fiber optic coverage across the whole country (OK, it's not a big country, but there's fiber everywhere).
- herbst 3y agoNomadlist.com
- seydor 3y agoIs the list for americans? Wouldn't remote workers do a little bit of location arbitrage? Who in their right mind would choose to live in Luxembourg since even the people who are forced to work there choose to live elsewhere
- f6v 3y agoLiving in Aarhus and Aalborg will only make you happy if you have roots in Denmark. I can’t imagine anyone having a good life moving there to do remote work from other country. You’re going to have zero social contact and the quality of services for the money is just meh. As others have pointed, the rating is meaningless.
- lostmsu 3y agoTaxes? Education? No way to review all stats. Very useless as is, but a better article on the same topic would be highly appreciated.
- RivieraKid 3y agoHere's what my ideal remote working city would look like: - Cheap. - Nice, clean, pleasant, pedestrian-oriented public spaces with good architecture. - Lively but not too over-crowded, not full of tourists. - Nice nature nearby. Something like cheap Luzern (or any Swiss city with a population above 20k) basically.
- bjornsing 3y agoDon’t forget: manageable bureaucracy and reasonable tax system.
- herbst 3y agoDepending on how you earn your money and pay your taxes, Switzerland already IS the cheaper option. What does saving $1000 on a apartment mean when you pay that and more extra in taxes and bureaucratic overhead. Things like good health Care, quality food or quality/brand products aren't cheaper at the same standard anywhere else either.
- lostmsu 3y agoThe daycare in Switzerland is going to be extremely expensive compared to neighbors.
- herbst 3y agoI mean it sure depends on how much you make but this could still easily fall into 'who cares if you pay $500 more for something when you pay half of the taxes'
- lostmsu 3y agoIf Swiss daycare is anywhere like Seattle's, for 2 kids 1 year would cost $50K, which is a high percentage on its own all the way up until $200K income. And for FAT retiring low income taxes are compensated by wealth tax.
- bjornsing 3y agoI live in Sweden and work remote. I’m actually thinking about moving somewhere else. but my top concern is taxes, which doesn’t seem to included in this comparison.
- herbst 3y agoMy exact thought. They call Switzerland expensive but depending on what remote work means you pay less taxes than in nearly any other country making the slightly higher prices irrelevant. The main reason I can't simply move anywhere i want to is because I would effectively earn less in most cases while increasing burocracy overhead for entrepreneurship.
- ruslan_talpa 3y agoWeird seeing Oradea in a “top 10” list :) Drop me a line if you ever visit.