Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

blog.mobilejazz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 197 posts

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#21

Post by znq »

rdl wrote: post #11

I've always wanted to do this, but the objection raised is "how does this work for people with families?" (partner with a job is one thing, let alone kids).

So at Mobile Jazz we made it a voluntary thing. After all you cannot force your employees to go anywhere ;-)

To Thailand only a few of us went, mostly for the family reasons.

However, to our most recent trip to the Austrian Alps we had almost everyone in the company head over there.

In general we're actually very pro-family. We do have a main office in Barcelona, but everyone is allowed to work from virtually anywhere. Some of us travel and work from remote locations, but for those with families it's also a great benefit to work from home and have more time with their families.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#22

Post by codingdave »

My company works 100% remotely, and some people have lives more compatible with adventures like this than others. Most people will travel freely, working from wherever they are. We don't even tell each other when we travel for the most part... in our day to day operations, it just doesn't matter if I am in my home office, in my parent's kitchen in Florida, or in a hotel in another country.

But we also do all have families with their own lives, so we have a stable home somewhere, and spend the majority of our time at that home. We also get into a working rhythm at our home, which gets disrupted with travel and adjustments to a new working environment, so when we really need top effectiveness for a project, it works better from "home", at least in our experience.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#23

Post by turbojerry »

bart42_0 wrote: post #2

It sounds and looks very nice. I have two questions: 1) Why did't they move to one of the Canary Islands? Part of Spain, Barcelona is a part of it. Less hassle because you stay in Europe, same language, same culture as in Barcelona. I rent a flat (70m2, furnished, 500m from the palmtree-beach, €500 /month), in the center of the capital on one of the islands, the internet connection is reasonable. Sounds comparable to…

The DSL service we have had over the last year in Los Gigantes in Tenerife has been atrocious, down from 3Mbps to under 1Mbps, we are better off with a 3G connection and if you go with UKs 3 network you can roam there and use up to 250GB a month on the all you can eat plan.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#24

Post by znq »

codingdave wrote: post #22

My company works 100% remotely, and some people have lives more compatible with adventures like this than others. Most people will travel freely, working from wherever they are. We don't even tell each other when we travel for the most part... in our day to day operations, it just doesn't matter if I am in my home office, in my parent's kitchen in Florida, or in a hotel in another country. But we also do all have fam…

That was one of the problems we actually described in our blog post about the Thailand experience. It took as us while to actually find out rhythm (simple things like finding food, doing laundry, etc.) and that was taking a lot of our energy and time in the beginning.

And then once you're set up and feel 'home' in that new place it's already time to leave again. So the biggest learning experience for us is to stay longer next time.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#25

Post by ben_pr »

S4M wrote: post #17
ben_pr wrote: post #8

I'm in Puerto Rico, moved here from the states two years ago. There are a number of tax incentives for people wanting to start tech companies here. Google Puerto Rico Act 20. Short version: "Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and…

Totally unrelated, but I did a short contract about maths for a Ben who was based in Puerto Rico, was it you?

No it wasn't me. I do consultant work for financial services industry in the states, online banking, IVR/VRU, 3rd party service integration, etc.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#26

Post by normloman »

nthState wrote: post #7

I've always dreamed of having a company (that was making money) where I could relocate my team once a month every month to a different place on the planet. London, Tokyo, Singapore, China, San Francisco, Iceland, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, India, Canada... We could be a travelling startup. That would be so cool!

Yeah but then you'd need a team who'd travel with you. And few people can just pack up and move every month. If you have kids, you'll want to keep them in the same school. Or you might be tied down to care for a family member. I would never leave my area for long because it's where all my friends live.

It's simpler to have a remote company. Then you can take all the trips you want, and your team can work from wherever they want.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#28

Post by iolothebard »

eyeareque wrote: post #16

I worked remotely from Tahiti for a few months. It was an amazing experience that I'll always cherish. Now I just need to convince my new boss to let me do this again somewhere else. For those of you in the pacific time zone (sf bay). If you're interested in doing this, I recommend Tahiti or Hawaii. It's three hours off from pacific time during the summer months but only 2 hours off during winter. You can easily work…

Lol, 8am Pacific Time. If the developers I worked with were in by 10am scrum I was surprised.

I called it CA time. Roll in at 10am, 1.5-2 hour lunch, surprisingly most everyone gone at 5pm because kids or something else.

My coworkers would ask me how many hours I was working, to which I'd reply 40. How many are you working?

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#29

Post by icebraining »

bart42_0 wrote: post #2

It sounds and looks very nice. I have two questions: 1) Why did't they move to one of the Canary Islands? Part of Spain, Barcelona is a part of it. Less hassle because you stay in Europe, same language, same culture as in Barcelona. I rent a flat (70m2, furnished, 500m from the palmtree-beach, €500 /month), in the center of the capital on one of the islands, the internet connection is reasonable. Sounds comparable to…

Are you sure you're not talking about the Balearic Islands? The Canaries are not even close to Barcelona, they're off the coast of Africa.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#30

Post by iolothebard »

normloman wrote: post #26
nthState wrote: post #7

I've always dreamed of having a company (that was making money) where I could relocate my team once a month every month to a different place on the planet. London, Tokyo, Singapore, China, San Francisco, Iceland, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, India, Canada... We could be a travelling startup. That would be so cool!

Yeah but then you'd need a team who'd travel with you. And few people can just pack up and move every month. If you have kids, you'll want to keep them in the same school. Or you might be tied down to care for a family member. I would never leave my area for long because it's where all my friends live. It's simpler to have a remote company. Then you can take all the trips you want, and your team can work from whereve…

Bah, everyone's in their 20 with no family!
Post reply on HN