🔮 FUTURE OF WORK

Early sabbaticals have entered the chat!

Early sabbaticals are starting to become more common even in rigid corporations.

Burnout among employees has reached massive numbers over the last couple of years and coupled with new opportunities thanks to remote work, companies are having a harder time holding on to employees.

Enter sabbaticals - the chance for an employee to take extended paid leave from their job.

Several companies have started offering sabbaticals to seasoned employees.

Some, like Bank of America, give up to 6 weeks for employees who’ve been with the company for 15 years which is a laughable time off common in Europe as standard.

However, other companies like PayPal, Adobe, and Zocdoc let employees take a paid month-long break after 5 years on the job.

Company leaders have found that employees who take sabbaticals come back refreshed and more energized about their work.

INSIDER THOUGHTS: This is certainly something to applaud companies on, but we need to do more.

Remote companies like Doist & HotJar offer employees 8 weeks of time off per year as standard.

Baiting employees to stick around at a job in exchange for a month of time off after 5 years is still wild considering that employees change jobs every 2.7 years on average.

With AI providing employees with more leverage than ever before, annual sabbaticals for employees shouldn’t be the exception to the norm.

👋 COWORKING

WeWork admits “substantial doubt” over its future

WeWork, once the darling of VC investors, just took another blow.

Back in April WeWork received a notice from the NYSE that its stock could be delisted due to its price being below $1 for consecutive 30 days.

This week its stock plummeted another 24% after it issued a statement admitting to “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue”.

In total WeWork’s share price has fallen by more than 95% in the last year!

While WeWork has become a bit of a meme over the last couple of years due to the shenanigans that went on at the company, its failure would have huge effects on remote work and startups around the world.

Around 80% of WeWork spaces are used by solopreneurs, small businesses, and startups.

However, experts agree that WeWork’s possible demise isn’t due to the actual product, plenty of other coworking providers have seen great success over the last couple of years…

Instead, it’s all due to the company’s unsustainable early growth and mismanagement.

Other coworking news:

• WeWork’s uncertain future could threaten commercial-property markets.

• Ikea’s parent company, Ingka Group, is opening the first US location of its coworking franchise Hej!Workshop in San Francisco

• Empowered by coworking spaces & the growing acceptance of workations, employees are rethinking their professional lives

💻 REMOTE WORK

Zoom issues a return to the office for employees

This week Zoom announced that it is calling its employees back to the office…

Supposedly to do their remote Zoom meetings from offices?

According to the announcement, employees who live near a Zoom location must be on-site two days a week embracing a “hybrid approach”.

Zoom’s move comes amid questions about its financial success.

Its stock exploded during COVID, 5Xing from March to October 2020.

However, since then users have dropped as they find better video conferencing tools or adopt async work practices and its stock has dropped back down to pre-pandemic levels.

🚨 WORD ON THE WEB

• 🏖️ The new Bali. Looking for a relaxed tropical paradise where you can get some work done while enjoying world-class diving? Look no further than Dahab, Egypt. The small eclectic town is starting to attract more digital nomads looking for an alternative to the already popular nomad beach destinations.

• 🤝 Karisma Klub. Our friends at Karisma Coliving in Barcelona have announced the construction of a new social club in the heart of one of our favorite European cities for creators, entrepreneurs, and digital nomads.

• 🌱 Curate your environment. Want to succeed at something? Make sure you are in an environment that supports it. Staying fit while living in a McDonald’s will be hard. Our friend & fellow nomad Dr. Emil shares a bit on how he used his environment to lose 10lbs after traveling in the US.

• 🗒️ ReadME. Our friend and respected remote work coach Darcy Marie, shared in her new newsletter Remote by Design how & why to create a ReadME - an operating manual of sorts on how people can best work with you. I’ve included a screenshot below since there is no evergreen link:

  

📆 UPCOMING EVENTS:

Aug 28-31: NomadEire [📍Tralee, Kerry County, Ireland] - Wide-ranging discussion on all things related to nomadic life along with skill sharing, business coaching, and celebration of what Ireland can offer digital nomads.

Sept 28 - Oct 1: Nomadness Fest [📍Louisville, Kentucky, US] - A festival for travelers of color and their allies. 30+ speakers covering topics such as branding, business, domestic travel, effects of over-tourism, and much more. (👋 I’ll be there)

Sept 30: DNCH [📍Bern, Switzerland + Virtual] - Learn about location-independent life and meet like-minded people interested in the digital nomad lifestyle.

Oct 9-15: The Nomad World [📍Albufeira, Portugal] - Transformative experience for digital nomads and remote workers from across the globe. A mix of expert talks, hands-on workshops, and beach-side fun, aimed at celebrating freedom, connection, and personal growth.

Dec 7-13: Nomad Island Fest [📍 Madeira, Portugal] - Learn from world-class industry experts on topics like mindset, marketing, tech, wealth & health.

🌍 WFA JOBS:

Looking for a job that’s not just remote, but that you can work from anywhere in the world? We’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Check out these awesome WFA positions 👇

⭐️ Freelance Social Media Content @ ZalaHairExtensions

⭐️ Data Engineer @ Toggl

⭐️ Virtual Assistant (Media Buying) @ ClientAccelerators

⭐️ UX/UI Designer @ RemoteMore

⭐️ Travel Agent @ SimplyProfoundJourneys