Devote to being remote: a new way of working on the rise

The recent article related to my podcast interview with podcast host Paul Andrew Smith of the Lead with a Story podcast on 4 Ways to Work Remotely Without Working from Home got a lot of engagement. It is great to see the traction! 

This demonstrates that remote work is a hot topic not only for a distributed workforce but increasingly amongst large corporations. As millennials are becoming a higher percentage of the working population, they are asking for the freedom to work remotely, and this trend is not to be ignored.

It is a subject I am most passionate about and I embody this new way of working in my own working practices and daily life. In the many responses that followed the podcast episode and article publication, a few questions and topics became apparent that I would like to answer or reflect upon a bit further, in order to continue the conversation.

Roberto J. raised an interesting point about routine and the role it plays in creativity.

Does routine kill creativity or feed it?

Remote working can offer a change in routine and break patterns. Personally, I believe that routine stifles creativity. The best way to stimulate a good idea is to move away from the subject and do something completely different, preferably in a different environment. This point of view is based on the idea that creativity comes from unexpected brain connections when you change your environment. When you are constantly busy in execution mode and doing the same stuff over and over again, in the exact same setting, it is difficult to get insights, inspiration, light bulb moments and different perspectives, all of which are important in order to innovate. I always ask myself : When was the last time I did something for the first time?

But not everyone is on the same page. Speaking with people about this subject, I found that for some people, routines actually ease people’s minds and offer structure. This structure relaxes them and reduces the amount of decisions that need to be made in a day. Therefore, routines support their creativity. So, what’s an absolute creativity killer for me, can be the perfect boost for somebody else.

Please do not confuse routine and remote work. There can be a routine in remote work. This is even a piece of advice I, and a lot of digital nomads I have talked to give, saying that routine is key to keeping a good level of energy. Therefore, my advice for people who crave routine to spur creativity, is to create a routine within their remote working habits. But that’s a further discussion for another time. 

Robin Roberts mentioned paying taxes when working remotely.

Does remote working come with tax issues?

This is a good question and something that companies going remote-friendly need to consider. It’s easy to think “after all it’s just you behind your laptop 24/7, anytime, anywhere, now that our workstyle can be fully digitised”. Income taxes are usually payable in the country where you are active. But when you manage a project, requiring you to fly from Econocom’s Brussels headquarters to one of the subsidiaries in Spain or the UK for a meeting the next day, requiring you to cross a few borders, which country did the activity actually happen in?

Working remotely can be done from the country you live and work in. For us at Econocom Nederland, that’s in the Netherlands, but any other country within the European Union also allows it without any visa issues. If an employee wants to work from a more exotic location, it will indeed require awareness and education from the employee’s side, and a discussion with the company about their policy.

Some companies I have encountered are completely distributed and have an adhoc legal frame. Some employees also decide to work from countries knowing they don’t have the right to do so from a strictly legal point of view, because they know there is a lot of tolerance from authorities. This is often the case for south-east Asian countries, for example, among many others. Yet, the work is still done for a company based in a specific country and employees pay their taxes in that country. The topic can be trickier for location-independent entrepreneurs, depending on how long they travel and what country they are legally registered in, both personally and professionally.

To gain perspective on this, it is important to know that, so far, tax laws have not caught up with remote ways of working. Whether you are a CEO or an entrepreneur, it is best to get advice from an international tax expert, preferably someone who has experience dealing with remote companies and in the remote working space.

Although I am not an expert when it comes to entrepreneurs, I believe you need to pay tax in the country you live in, or in the country where the company you work for is based. That’s how I do it within the European Union, since you don’t need to have an official working permit. However, there may be cases that differ from my situation, and this is one reason why I advise you to consult with specialists, i.e. an expert on international tax law, a registered accountant or a consultant who helps companies transition to remote working. And if remote working is something you would like to adopt permanently, you can also look into becoming a Digital Nomad! However, to do this, you’ll need to educate yourself with the help of competent professionals more than ever.

If you need clarification on your tax situation or would like to share ideas with a Digital Nomad, leave a comment, and I will put you in touch with a relevant contact who will be able to help.

And finally, Julie Foss acknowledged that working from home comes with both opportunities and challenges.

What are the pros and cons of working from home?

Pros

Working from home means there’s no need to commute, which can save time. Bearing in mind the traffic congestion in the Netherlands, for example, a reduced commute means lower stress levels as well as carbon emissions. People can therefore dedicate more time to other activities and contribute to their communities in the time they save by not commuting. Commuting 2 hours per day adds up to 40 hours each month! This is a topic I recently talked about and the role it plays in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the video below.

You are also more flexible, because you can schedule your working hours over the whole day and choose the most productive hours that work for you, instead of adapting to your office’s working hours. I select specific tasks and actively choose the most effective environment to do them in for maximum productivity and creativity. 

Cons

External factors such as nice weather, can make it harder to stick to your schedule. This is where you need intrinsic motivation and self-discipline to get the job done. Working without colleagues, or more people around you in general, can also be lonely, and it’s easier to get trapped into a habit of working overtime, since there is nobody stopping you. If you work from home, you may have to give up some space in your house to create an effective working space, as the dinner table is usually not the most ergonomic place to do your work. Also, unless you have a dedicated room transformed into an office space, you will have blurry boundaries between work and personal time, since you’ll have visual cues that are work related while you relax, and vice versa.

I believe it’s about finding the right balance and choosing the best environment for the task on hand. I am a strong advocate of working from coworking spaces rather than working from home. Working from home should be limited, and for specific reasons (for example, being there for a plumber or electrician appointment, having a sick kid, ...) but should not be your default remote work mode. When you need to interact, go to your office and have meetings, exchange ideas, spend some time socialising, or work from a coworking space to meet professionals from other fields and get stimulated. Your office and colleagues are one of the communities you interact with. At a coworking space you will interact with another community and therefore widen your horizons. I learn new practices and ideas from coworking spaces everyday that I bring back and put it into practice at Econocom. For tasks that require focus, choose to work remotely from a coworking space, a quiet cafe, or from home to minimise distractions. 

At Econocom, I manage based on output, not input. I encourage people to get the job done in the most effective and efficient way, also by offering them the right ecosystem to do so. That’s what’s moving our company forward. Find out more about how we encourage remote working at Econocom in this video.

What are your experiences and thoughts on remote working? Share them with me, from any location you may be in, in the comments below.

Listen to the full podcast episode with Paul and myself here.