🧑‍💻 Portugal ends Golden Visa & bans Airbnb

Hey, remote work fam! This is Remote Insider your favorite spot to get up to speed on what's going on in the world of remote work and digital nomadism. In this email, we talk about...

• Portugal canceling Golden Visa and banning Airbnb

• Marc Andreessen’s views on why remote work is bad for young workers

• The best US city for remote workers and digital nomads

• Tiny homes for US digital nomads

Before we jump into that, here’s why you should consider working 9 to 5 even if you’re working remotely…

💡Tips & Tricks

The power of setting an end time

Despite many Fortune 500 CEOs saying that remote workers are not as productive, the truth is that a number of studies have proven the complete opposite to be true. Not only are remote workers more productive thanks to a lack of office distractions, they also tend to work longer hours.

Now, this last point is actually a big problem, and not just because you may be working longer than you’re supposed to, but because of Parkinson’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law was coined in the 1950s and it states that a task will always expand to fill the amount of given time.

I’m sure you can remember a time in school when you were able to complete a project in just a few hours thanks to a looming deadline when it would have otherwise taken you weeks.

The benefit of working from an office is that every workday has an end time.

With remote work, this boundary is all but removed so it can feel like you have all the time in the world.

No matter how you want to structure your day, whether linear or not, consider setting clear end times so you don’t fall victim to Parkinson’s Law.

🇵🇹 Portugal Ends Golden Visa Program & Bans New Airbnbs

Last Thursday the Portuguese government announced a series of reforms to tackle the ongoing housing crisis and one of the main actions is ending the country’s popular Golden Visa scheme which allowed non-EU citizens to receive citizenship if they purchased a property for as little as €280,000 in low-density areas.

The government also announced that it will stop issuing Airbnb/short-term rental licenses in high-density areas and will begin providing tax incentives to landlords who take their properties off the short-term rental market and offer it for long-term rentals instead.

This decision comes after Lisbon saw numerous protests as rental prices went up 37% in 2022 while 50% of Portuguese workers earned less than €1000 per month making it one of Western Europe’s poorest countries. The government hopes these new measures will help control the rental market and make it more affordable for locals.

👎 Marc Andreessen Says Remote Work “Is Not a Good Life” For Young Workers. Is He Right?

The legendary investor had a lot to say about the negative effects of remote work during a recent conference in Washington DC. Much of his views centered around what he sees as a lack of mentorship, relationships, and opportunities for professionals that have entered the workforce since COVID.

He called the office a "continuation of a college campus experience" (which is a bold comparison) and described remote workers’ existence as sitting in their studio apartment alone living through Tinder and Door Dash.

And in some ways… he’s not wrong.

Unfortunately, many remote workers are currently working for companies that are still trying to find a way to bring workers back to the office, instead of embracing remote work and setting up programs to address these worries. Remote work isn’t the problem, the problem is the companies themselves.

Remote-first companies like Doist, GitLab, or Buffer have found ways to provide workers with the mentorship and community that Andreessen is so worried about, and in many cases, these young workers are actually growing faster. The problem isn’t remote work, it’s companies that are not creating the support and programs that their remote employees need!

🌆 Study Finds The Top 10 US Cities For Remote Workers

We’ve seen rankings like this before, and often they fall flat completely missing the things that remote workers actually want from a city… but this one might be different.

Reviews.org ranked the top 100 metros in the US based on internet availability and speed, affordability, weather, recreational activities, airport connectivity, and job opportunities and found that Atlanta, Georgia is the best city for remote workers and digital nomads.

Atlanta scored high thanks to widely available fast internet, one of the most connected airports in the US, plenty of things to do in the city and many recreational activities just outside downtown, high-paying jobs, and a relatively low cost of living with a median rent of $1,342 per month.

The other cities making up the top 5 were Portland, Austin, Seattle, and Phoenix. Check out the full ranking here

🚨Word on The Web is…

📦 Amazon asks employees to come back to the office 3 days a week

🗽 New study finds remote work is costing Manhattan $12B per year

🇪🇸 After new visa launch, Spanish cities are on the hunt for digital nomads

🇯🇵 Japan is creating a visa for remote workers, here is what we know

🔷 Meta copies Twitter and introduces blue verified badge for $15 per month

🏡 Nomad Development is building tiny homes subscriptions for digital nomads

📆 Upcoming Events:

April 25-26: Running Remote [📍 Lisbon, Portugal] - Largest remote work conference in the world for enterprises and SMEs

May 24-28: Vivel [📍 Multiple Locations, Turkey] - networking meets music at this one-of-a-kind conference for location-independent professionals

June 16-19: Camp Indie [📍 Kent, Connecticut] - adult summer camp & conference for digital nomads & those living an unconventional life

June 25-July 2: Bansko Nomad Fest [📍 Bansko, Bulgaria] - for digital nomads, freelancers, and founders in the mountains of Bulgaria

🪑Robotic Furniture: The Apartment Of The Future

Last week we talked about how robotic furniture could solve many WFH issues by allowing you to transition your space from a living space to an office with the click of a button. Check out this awesome walk-through of an Ori Living apartment by Jeremy Cohen

⭐️ This Week’s WFA Jobs:

I've teamed up with THE remote job coach Jordan Carroll to provide you with handpicked work-from-anywhere jobs right here in this newsletter:

⭐ Senior People Care Specialist @ Superside

⭐ Product Manager @ Clipboard Health

⭐ Customer Success Manager @ Circle

Want help finding the right remote job for you? Join the Remote Collective and get introductions to dozens of remote companies looking to hire people like you!

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That's it from us this week, hope you have an amazing day!