Behind the wanderlust-fuelled TikToks and rosy travel blogs, a growing number of digital nomads are calling it quits
Chances are you know at least one true digital nomad, who always seems to be working from somewhere exotic. Maybe its Portugal, or Paris or an island in the Pacific. Especially if you were homebound during the pandemic, it is easy to be a little envious, at the very least.
“The pandemic created the perfect circumstances: workers wanted change after the boredom of lockdowns; companies had realized they could trust staff to work remotely; and tourist-dependent countries were desperate for visitors,” writes FT’s Sarah O’Connor.
Employers are now trying to wrestle this “into a less risky and more controlled form,” she noted. Some companies are now trying to put some limits on where and how long a nomad employee can be abroad for, largely for issues related to tax, labour laws and immigration. “The most common permitted timeframe is 20 to 30 days ― the safest way to avoid tax problems,” she writes.
But other digital nomads are settling down on their own. “Some nomads have left the lifestyle ― and those beachfront views ― behind,” writes the BBC. Some nomads said the untethered lifestyle was starting to grate on them. “I began to have panic attacks on a daily basis ― ones that only stopped whenever I imagined having a home,” said one. “I struggled to effectively run my business, working while lying in bed because I rarely had access to a desk.”
It’s notoriously hard to get good data on how many workers are digital nomads, and whether that number is growing or shrinking. One 2021 estimate had it at around 15 million worldwide. It ballooned during the pandemic, naturally, but now many are starting to figure that the total number of digital nomads is starting to plateau.
“Overall, more and more people are seeing the reality of this lifestyle,” said U.S. sociologist Beverly Thompson. There will always be some demand ― especially among young people ― for the lifestyle, she noted, but the pandemic-era trend is probably coming back down to earth.
Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.