I think you can go even cheaper in Thailand, though.
I laughed at the "10 euros a meal" part; that would be a week's worth of dinners out where I live in Thailand.
Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
81–90 of 197 posts
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/125980/thai-immigration-offici...
That article just confuses me. It says it is ok and then contradicts it a paragraph later. Eg: "Digital nomads – people working remotely or running online businesses – in Thailand can legally work there on tourist visas" But one paragraph down: "It is unlikely that travellers will be granted a re-entry stamp after two or three visa runs. If your passport is stamped “O-I” (out-in) upon arrival, it is unlikely that you…
Don't let the article confuse you. It's 100% illegal to work in Thailand on a tourist visa despite the comments of the Chiang Mai immigration office.
http://ashleyconnor.co.uk/blog/2014/09/07/working-in-thailan...
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure about Thailand, but this is true for USA. My colleague's wife is on H4 (dependant) visa and prior to coming to USA, she had a job in India. We talked to a lawyer and then with USCIS and both of them confirmed that it is not a possibility that she can work remote here in USA on H4 even though she gets paid in India.
What you can do though is travel to the US for business purposes.
Business purposes is things like signing contracts and participating in meetings. Not doing actual work.
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#84[deleted]
There are definitely coworking spaces. I just spent two weeks working out of Kohub on Koh Lanta. Had a great time and even ran into the creator of the framework I specialize in, he was on the same island. Hung out with some guys working on a Bitcoin startup, some other freelancers. Had a great time.
i guess it's an individual preference, but if i were off working on a lark the last thing i would want is to be surrounded by people who do the same thing as me. i can get plenty of that anywhere on both ends of california.
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Did they get the work done? If so, why do you care how long they took for lunch and when they got out of bed?
Nope, I cared because I was a consultant and was trying to make sure things got done.
I care because when you're working as a team and people are gone, it kills productivity across the team.
Not everyone works in silos.
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I am a developer in SF and work in finance. We are all in the office before 6am PT to be ready for the market-open at 6:30am. No one leaves for lunch as the market is still open. These things change quite a bit industry to industry, shop to shop. It's not necessarily a developer thing, just a business culture thing.
I interviewed for a few finance firms there. They were the last fucking places I'd ever work. They want to pay 1/2 to 2/3 the going rate and enforce the shitty hours and schedule you're referring to.
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We were there on holidays ;-) No, you stated you were working. From your article's title: "Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand" > what we're doing is technically a gray zone Did you file a tax statement and did you pay any taxes on income earned while you were residing in Thailand?
> No, you stated you were working Noticed the smiley? Nevertheless, how do you differentiate between holidays and work and where to draw the line? If you're responding to a work emails while being on holidays, does that count towards the taxable income in that country you're visiting? > Did you file a tax statement and did you pay any taxes on income earned while you were residing in Thailand? Absolutely. We're not e…
>In European countries for example you only become a tax resident if you spend more than 183 days there.
Pity Thais cannot easily come to Spain and work illegally. Despite what you've said it's blatant public abuse of the tourist visa system in Thailand.
Honestly when I see blog posts like this my opinion of the author and company goes down considerably. Breaking the rules and publishing the fact that you are makes me question what other grey areas you'd operate in.
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
The more time I spend here, the more I suspect that HN is populated with single 20 year olds with no friends or family. Thus, they create a "work family" to fill their social needs. The result is insular teams with mandatory beer pong tournaments.
Many of us working at Mobile Jazz actually have family and we care a lot about integrating them in whatever we do: http://blog.mobilejazz.com/work-life-balance-at-mobile-jazz/ It's not always perfectly possible, but at least we try :-)
When you did your Thailand experiment, did any employees take their families with them?
Also, I presume from the article that not every employee was in Thailand, and some chose to remain at home, correct? Did the remote team ever feel left out of the conversation as most of the team was speaking in person in Thailand?
Thank you, and nice article.
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you realize how evil that could sound? "I can force everyone to work 7 days per week by moving them to an island, miles away from their friends and family." If you need people to work 7 days per week, that's a problem. Hire more people, or set longer deadlines. Emergencies happen, but working late for a whole week or more is a systemic, productivity and morale sapping flaw. But you're right. Mauritius is great!
No, you can't force. But you can put a team close together, they don't have to work more than 8hrs/day. But if they meet on weekends, on trips, bbq's, there wil be shoptalk. That is good for the project. In most cases. I used to work for an 'offshore pipeline desig company' hard work, drinks on friday evening, family BBQ on Saturday. Lots of fun, and everybody was ALWAYS talking about kids, dogs and work.
I don't see anything wrong with team events, as long as they are optional. People should be encouraged to have interests outside of work. It promotes a healthy work/life balance, and discourages groupthink. The occasional team building event can be great for morale, but be respectful of people's obligations.
Your original post talked about relocating so team members could spend 7 days a week committed to the project. That goes far beyond a weekend BBQ.
Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand
#90[deleted]
In general, it is legal to work remotely in Thailand, unless your clientele/employer are Thai. The purpose of the law [1] was to prevent foreign workers from displacing native Thai workers, and "digital nomads" do nothing of the sort.
This becomes clear if you pay attention to the punishments imposed by the law; they concern Thai employers, not the alien workers, alone.
[1]: http://www.thailandlawonline.com/translations/foreign-employ...