Here's a preview of the remote work news we are covering this week:
- 👨👩👧👧🌴 Remote workers are taking their children on workation
- 🖥🛟 Apple workers rebel against back-to-work directive from CEO Tim Cook
- ⏰🎭 Be honest — do you ever waste time on 'productivity theater'?
This is the Wayviator Newsletter — Summer Edition.
It’s the remote work newsletter from Wayviator.com, written by Curtis Duggan.
Newsletters and articles are an excellent resource for planning your remote work life. But what we've learned over the last few months is that there is so much more that can be done to help present and future remote workers.
There are several companies that have sprung up to provide workation packages that cater to people who want a change of scenery — but don't want to give up fast wi-fi and suitable workspace.
But where would you find all of these workation providers in one easy location?
We launched WorkationList.co to help people find their next workation.
Check it out!
👨👩👧👧🌴 Remote workers are taking their children on workation
Sifted wrote an article about families taking their children on workations with them. I think this article missteps immediately in its goal of making workations feel relatable and accessible. The subject of the article is someone who made bank selling his startup in 2017.
Not something most people can relate to, and it perpetuates the idea of global travel as something for the super-rich rather than something that can be done by anyone with a remote income of over a few thousand dollars per month.
But we launched WorkationList because we know that this kind of thing is going to be popular for people of many different income levels.
In fact, I think the concept of going on workations will become so widespread and popular that it may even rival leisure tourism by 2030.
And private companies and locations will start building up locations as family-friendly remote work communities — like Sintra, Portugal — mentioned in the article.
🖥🛟 Apple workers rebel against back-to-work directive from CEO Tim Cook
Apple wants employees back at the office three days a week. Some employees reportedly have other ideas.
In a world where many major global tech companies like Microsoft, Airbnb, and others have adopted a permanent work-from-anywhere philosophy, Apple is standing firm.
They repeat the justification that there is something irreplaceable about in-office culture: a sense of shared purpose, spontaneity, and cross-pollination of ideas that erodes when people are scattered and not working in the same place.
The biggest problem I see here is not 'who wins' between Apple and its employees.
I see Apple shooting itself in the foot with the worst of both worlds.
Companies will need to make a choice between remote or in-office. The third way is the worst way: 'hybrid'. Forcing employees to come into the office 'a few days per week' completely limits an employee's ability to make use of remote work freedoms.
Apple will alienate both the employees who want remote work freedom and the leadership and team members who enjoy in-office culture, by turning their giant billion-dollar ring-shaped office into a constantly half-empty compromise.
As Axios suggests — there's no going back.
⏰🎭 Be honest — do you ever waste time on 'productivity theater'?
One thing remote work is supposed to accelerate is the elimination of 'productivity theater'.
When work hours are 9-5, who among us has not finished a task at 4 PM and then engaged in vaguely productive, but non-essential tasks to 'appear like you are working'.
Responding to non-urgent emails. Organizing file structures. Having a quick chat with a colleague that is mostly small talk but 'technically about work'.
With remote work, the utopian ideal is that you get your work done, and if you finish it half an hour early, you can use that time for whatever is most important to your life — not the song-and-dance of basically pretending to work.
Inc has some news from a new study by Qatalog and GitLab: remote workers are still wasting time on productivity theater.
The article also mentions a new productivity movement: 'asynchronous communication' or 'async'. This is the idea that most meetings could actually not be a meeting but rather ongoing collaboration moderated by software, which happens on people's own preferred time.
Someone leaves a comment on the shared design document at 9 AM; you respond with your feedback at 11 AM (after doing other things that were important to you, uninterrupted by a meeting). The decision-maker reads both comments and makes a decision at 1 PM.
We'll see how much this management and productivity trend catches on. My bet is remote teams will have to adopt at least some form of 'async' mentality to thrive.
Remote Work News from Around the Internet
More on South America's first digital nomad village in Brazil.
A recession might actually supercharge remote work.
Remote work is growing despite opposition.
Thailand allows longer stays for visitors.
USA Today covers nomad visas.
And finally...
Netflix built a #vanlife couple a sex room. 😘
That's it for this summer edition of the newsletter.
Not too many more summer editions to go...
We're excited about fall: I'll be visiting remote work destinations in Portugal, Croatia, Montenegro, and Italy to get on-the-ground updates on the latest tips, trends, and communities.
