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Updated March 23, 2023You’re reading an excerpt of The Holloway Guide to Remote Work, a book by Katie Wilde, Juan Pablo Buriticá, and over 50 other contributors. It is the most comprehensive resource on building, managing, and adapting to working with distributed teams. Purchase the book to support the author and the ad-free Holloway reading experience. You get instant digital access, 800 links and references, a library of tools for remote-friendly work, commentary and future updates, and a high-quality PDF download.
Digital nomads can and do thrive in some cases, but traveling consistently consumes more time, money, and energy than staying in place, and many remote companies still are not willing or organized enough to support nomadism for one or more employees. The unique demands of digital nomads (along with other remote work factors like isolation and lack of social support) are some of the inspirations for organizations like Remote Year, which puts digital nomads into cohorts and provides logistical and on-site support for people traveling and working remotely.
contributeWe aren’t covering digital nomads in this Guide, but we’d love to hear more from people working this way to help us inform potential future updates.
60% of remote workers still work a fixed-schedule job five days a week, involving meetings, video calls, and plenty of collaborative work. It’s likely that this schedule correlates with the majority of remote companies still being hybrid, which could constrain remote team members to more traditional in-office schedules. But even if your schedule is not a traditional 9-to-5 routine, that doesn’t mean you truly get to do whatever you want, whenever you choose.
caution In some remote teams, handling time zone differences can mean occasional odd hours for meetings. Distributed teams often work across time zones, and you’ll be collaborating with people on the other side of the country or the world. We’ve provided ways to manage that later, but differing time zones can be either a benefit or a drawback. Managed well, time differences let you get stuff done in your working day with fewer interruptions; but managed badly, they can lead to long lead times, misunderstandings, or meetings at undesirable hours—and can even exacerbate feelings of isolation and loneliness.