🔮 FUTURE OF WORK

Shopify ads “meeting cost calculator” in hopes of reducing company meetings

This week Shopify rolled out a new internal feature - a calculator embedded in people’s calendar app that estimated the cost of any meetings with 3 or more people.

The new tool is part of the company’s drive to reduce unnecessary meetings.

• Earlier this year Shopify eliminated all recurring meetings with 2+ people

• COO Kaz Nejatian said: “No one at Shopify would expense a $500 dinner, but lots and lots of people spend way more than that in meetings without ever making a decision.”

• According to research from UNC, noncritical meetings waste ~$100m a year at big organizations

While many remote work fans may celebrate this move, especially in the face of recent anti-remote rhetoric from CEOs, there are some negatives…

This could especially harm young workers who may need more mentorship from higher-up staff and can also contribute to feelings of disconnect common in remote organizations.

🎒 DIGITAL NOMADISM

Safest countries for digital nomads in 2023

The Global Peace Index recently released its 2023 rankings and our friends at Traveling Lifestyle overlapped that data with a recent report on the top digital nomad countries to find the safest countries for digital nomads.

Here are the top safest countries for digital nomads:

1. Ireland (GPI #3)

2. Singapore (GPI #6)

3. Portugal (GPI #7)

4. Japan (GPI #9)

5. Switzerland (GPI #10)

6. Canada (GPI #11)

7. Germany (GPI #15)

8. Netherlands (GPI #16)

9. Malaysia (GPI #19)

10. Belgium (GPI #20)

On the other hand, popular nomad destinations like Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Turkey scored at the bottom of the list as some of the least safe countries popular with digital nomads.

It’s important to keep in mind that these very generalized lists and safety is relative to the actual city you are visiting. A city can be very safe, while still being in a relatively dangerous country.

On that note, Mexico 🇲🇽 was just voted as the best country for expats in a survey of more than 12,000 global citizens!

💻 REMOTE WORK

Working women’s record-setting comeback is thanks to WFH

While the COVID pandemic was bad for everyone, it was especially bad for working women as many women-dominated industries took a hard hit which was only made worse by school and daycare closings.

Many were worried it could wipe out decades of progress for working women but today the data shows the opposite, more women are working today than ever before.

Today, 77.8% of women between 25 and 54 are in the labor force surpassing the previous peak in 2000 and the biggest gains were seen in women in their 30s. This is important because statistically its when college-educated women start having kids, prompting them to quit their jobs.

Thanks to mass remote work, these women don’t have to choose between a career and having a family. They can do both!

According to Aaron Terrazas, the chief economist at Glassdoor, work from home has been such a game changer that it may have expanded the labor force by as many as 1.3 million women…

That’s roughly a year’s worth of immigration in the US 🤯

🚨 WORD ON THE WEB

• 🛩️ Like skiplagging? Thank geometry. Skiplagging is the act of buying cheaper tickets with a layover in a person’s final destination & never getting on the second flight. Turns out it only works because it defies a basic law of geometry

• 👴 Surge in retirees could reshape the workforce. If there are more retirees than people in the workforce we may see higher taxes, economic slowdown, and a shift in career trajectories.

• 🤖 xAI isn’t ready to take on OpenAI. This week Elon Musk announced his OpenAI competitor xAI and the staff is weirdly small… 12 people small. May be more of a recruiting launch than an actual “product” launch.

• 🛑 Is this the end of the open internet? Rising interest rates are forcing large internet companies to gate content and end the open internet dream of the 2000s

• 💨 Vanlifers rejoice with portable AC. Vanlife always seemed cool but the idea of living in a metal box during hot summer months isn’t very… cool 😉. The EcoFlow Wave 2 is a portable AC unit that can keep a van, or small office, at the perfect temp year round!

📆 UPCOMING EVENTS:

July 15-29: Nomad City Festival 2023 [📍Gran Canaria] - the original nomadic unconference presented by Repeople. Get inspired, learn, & make connections at the biggest nomad event in the Canary Islands.

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

More events coming soon!

🌍 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 👇

⭐️ Senior Application Engineer @ Float

⭐️ ML Engineer Intern @ Ivy

⭐️ Product Marketing Manager @ Castr

⭐️ Freelance Writer @ StonePress

⭐️ Insider Sales Representative @ PhotoboothSupplyCo