Local Nomads: The Rise of Roaming Work-from-Home Employees

Though the call to exotic travel has been popularized in many digital nomad-centric articles, plenty of remote workers’ wanderings keep them closer to home. This group doesn’t fit the traditional work-from-home mold; they can be found in public libraries, cafes, hotel lobbies, parks, bookstores, coworking spaces, and even in common areas on college campuses. (Have I missed someplace?)

Like their more adventurous traveling counterparts, “local nomads” also enjoy discovering new places in their work lives—they’re just doing so within the scope of their cities or nearby neighborhoods.

Why heed the call of the great indoors when there’s so much to see, and your work not only allows for travel, but likely fosters it?

Priorities 

Maybe the notion of hopping from one locale to another without knowing your next move and potentially working from a shared hostel room isn’t your cup of tea. Or, perhaps you may work remotely, but still burn the midnight oil by logging long days. Suffice to say, your lifestyle and career priorities may not align with those of a digital nomad, and that’s perfectly fine (and often overlooked), but these points are strongly worth considering for those who are thinking about transitioning to a nomadic lifestyle.

Home is Where the Heart Is

It’s also where the bathroom reno, kitchen demo, and basement rehab are, of course. Though some remote workers’ motivations lie in working enough to fund their travel, for the local nomad with a beloved homestead, it’s those renovation projects that fuel their desire to roam close to home. (Say, for example, the local café or public park.) Changing up their scenery but still being able to make a high stakes afternoon video call means encountering fewer potential remote work fails, too.

Money saved on gas and take-out lunches can be repurposed for new kitchen counters, and work bonuses then become bonus rooms. It’s all about making their home—and the office within—a haven. Staycation, anyone?

Rated PG for Parental Guidance

It’s not that you can’t travel with kids. But for most parents, that’s a luxury relegated to the summer months between school semesters. For work-from-home parents with school-age children, the ability to roam on a global scale hits the backburner while their kids finish up pre-collegiate education. (Though dreams of setting sail while working remotely might be brought up often!)

The flexibility in these local nomads’ work life can usually balance out the often inflexible nature of extracurricular activities, meaning all those moms or dads (or sometimes both parents!) can chauffer their kiddos from band practice to track to martial arts, and still make their deadlines.

Daytripper’s Dalliance

If you’re in a relationship with a worker who isn’t remote, traveling more can get a little tricky. Just because your position offers more flexibility doesn’t mean you’ll get to exercise it, especially since some traditional jobs are still often lacking robust vacation policies. However, sitting in the home office all day can get pretty lonely. For the landlocked nomads, daily jaunts into the heart of the city or a nearby coworking space can satisfy the itch from the travel bug until both parties can roam together.

Rehabbers, cohabbers, parents, and caregivers alike all have their reasons for leaving the worldly wandering to the truly nomadic remote workers. The best part about remote work is the flexibility you have to decide when travel is right for you. Eventually, kids grow up and head off to start their own lives, vacation time with a loved one rolls around, and at some point, you’ll run out of rooms in your project home. In the meantime, enjoy finding the hidden gems in your city. And maybe set a Google alert for killer airfare deals, just in case.  

Jobs for Both Local Nomads and Digital Nomads

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Photo Credit: bigstockphoto.com

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By Kristi DePaul | Categories: Work Remotely

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