Is The Office Obsolete? Many Travellers Hope So

As the pandemic drags on, remote workers see unexpected opportunities to become digital nomads

- Jackie Snow

Arthur Deane never imagined that the digital nomad lifestyle—travelling the world while working remotely—was for him. As a senior manager for tech giant Google, he thought being in an office was essential for the job. But the pandemic changed that.

Four months of working from his apartment in Washington, D.C., had him going stir crazy and needing to get out. After researching places where Americans were allowed to travel and reasonable safety precautions seemed to be in place, he jetted to Aruba for a week in July.

“I wanted to dip my toes into the water, literally and figuratively,” he says.

Now, he’s looking at returning to Aruba or one of the other destinations open to Americans for a longer trip. There are still details to sort out, but he has time: Google’s U.S. offices aren’t reopening until July 2021—at the earliest.

Freelancers, entrepreneurs, and the self-employed have made up the majority of the digital nomad crowd, but this could change as more companies reevaluate work culture after six months of remote log-ins. The number of people who might remain out of office is staggering.

For Deane, the chance to work remotely for a few months each year while maintaining a home base in the U.S. could be an ideal setup— and a reality sometime soon.