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Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

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Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#421
post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only works if you are holder of passport of the origin country. As a third world country national, I cannot legally work anywhere except the country I got my work visa. PS: Even if company is multinational corporation.

Laws are still written for those doing manual labor. What's the difference if I do some work in the evening at home or during my holiday in e.g. Greece? The only added cost in given country is energy. Problems start to appear if I get sick, but that should be on myself - and in most cases (for EU citizen) it is most appropriate to return home to cure/hospitalize (unless it is something needing immediate help).

There are also other issues.

What with labor laws? Should you follow the laws from the country from where you work or where the company is located? Companies would just get a post box in the country with the weakest labour laws.

The simplest solution stays that the laws where you physically are apply.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#422
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think they even try to get work visas. A lot of countries have tourist visas up to 90 days. And if you go to a country to work there, but are not paid by a local company, you are basically a tourist. I think this is what AirBnB are doing. A lot of countries have a requirement for you to reside in it for at least half the year to be able to be taxed there and be considered an employee. A lot of countries allow…

Nope, unless your country has a special arrangement with the country you are visiting, you cannot work with a tourist visa, at all. Does not matter if the company is local or not. No work visa = no work.

Makes sense. So everyone that works while traveling is doing so illegally

Oh wait

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#423
post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t think they even try to get work visas. A lot of countries have tourist visas up to 90 days. And if you go to a country to work there, but are not paid by a local company, you are basically a tourist. this has been discussed to death on DN forums. Basically yes you're breaking the law but if you don't get caught no one will know. Some people don't like taking this risk while some don't mind.

Well traveling within the EU should be simple enough. Haven't done it outside but I have a few questions. If I'm on paid leave, I'm still earning money, and I go to Asia - am I breaking the law? I'm still "doing" the activity that's earning me money. If I'm on my paid leave, and fiddle with my blog, which gets ad revenue - am I earning money and thus doing illegal economic activity? Not a lawyer so would love a more…

Maybe start with recognising that "Asia" is not a legal jurisdiction.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, unless your country has a special arrangement with the country you are visiting, you cannot work with a tourist visa, at all. Does not matter if the company is local or not. No work visa = no work.

Makes sense. So everyone that works while traveling is doing so illegally Oh wait

Yes, unless they have the correct visa. No work visa, no working. It really is that simple.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#425
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must be possible for all the remote workers to gather together and actually rent/make an office like this right (with like, 10 people in, 10 small offices and a shared lunchroom/kitchen)? If you’re not looking for a bunch of profit the rent would sort of remain bearable too.

Depends on the company, I think. Some companies are geographically remote, so that's not quite possible. For others yes, things like WeWork exist although might be a little pricey (but probably worth it!). Or just a warehouse-type location equipped with temporary walls that could be rented too :-)

Every picture I've ever seen of a place like WeWork has shown an open floor plan. They might have offices, but they're going to be extra expensive.

And since there's no such thing as "your desk" there, you will never feel at ease. Every day might bring someone that's incredibly annoying, and collaborating with your coworkers would mean either annoying others or booking a conference room.

In the end, it's easier to collaborate with them via video from home.

I think there are advantages to having an office, but I don't think collab work places have those advantages.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#426
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't agree more. Privacy of a small room but having people around when you _need_ them is the best of both worlds.

Start your own company. Get your “boss” office, and roam the staff shared office when you want. Problem solved. Don’t ask your employer to fulfill your capricious dreams.

No post body was provided.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, unless your country has a special arrangement with the country you are visiting, you cannot work with a tourist visa, at all. Does not matter if the company is local or not. No work visa = no work.

This is a legal loophole for digital nomads. If I am connected to my work via a VPN, I am technically still working in the country of employment. I am not producing any commercial output in the country I am staying that I or my employer benefits from beneficially. I am 100% confident this has been reviewed by well paid lawyers at AirBnb who have zero sense of adventure, and that this is all water tight.

No, that's not how it works at all.

There are several ways tax codes can categorize income:

- the country the person was hired in (e.g. US)

- the country for whom the work is complete for (say if US employee delivered code for a Canadian office)

- the country the company who hired the person is located in

- the country the company paying the employee is located in

- the country the person was originally hired in (same as #2)

- the country where the work is actually done

A lot of countries just look at the last one. Doesn't matter if you were hired in the US, paid in the US dollars and US taxes are taken from your pay check. If you complete your work in country X, country X wants their taxes according to their laws.

There is a separate aspect for the company. You as an employee might comply with all tax regulations - hired in the US, US taxes deducted, but you file your taxes in a separate country and pay taxes owed.

But your employer may be out of compliance as well - they may need to be registered in the that country, have obligations for employer tax and social security payments, etc.

It's mostly their own obligations companies are worried about. If the employee pisses off and breaks tax law in another country, well that's on them.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#428

I hope they add a "remote working approved" tag and filter, just like the "superhost". I have been working remotely since almost a year now in several European countries and to filter out AirBnBs, which offer a decent desk and have stable internet takes hours. The "workstation" filter can not be trusted and neither the "has Wifi", which doesn't say anything about the quality. An internet speed test should be required…

The problem is that in a lot of Western Europe, an actually-good Internet connection is a very rare commodity - DSL is still a thing in 2022 .

There are a few countries where broadband is unjustifiably bad (Germany and Belgium come to mind) but I wouldn't generalize to the entire Western Europe. For instance many rural departments of France have extensive FTTH coverage.

Also DSL isn't necessarily so bad, G.fast allows for speeds that are close to what you can do with modern Docsis deployments.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#429
post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I knew my neighbors, and treated them as I would neighbors in any other apartment I rented as a regular tenant. Tangential, but I have lived for 10 years in the same apartment and I have never interacted with my neighbours. Not even once.

Elevators. I talk a lot and only about 50% of people seem to mind.

The etiquette seems to be that if someone is waiting for the very small elevator, the other person takes the stairs.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#430
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what’s the justification for paying less in e.g. London than USA You mention it in the next sentence - the local labor market. UK developers earn a fraction of what US developers do. We can debate the root causes but it seems irrelevant why it's true, only whether or not it is true. I'm not sure why cost of living should factor into comp at all. I can have a much higher COL than you, but if you bring more value to…

Of course, I'm talking about comparing equally skilled and experienced employees. Can you rephrase your answer without conflating employee aptitude and CoL/local Labor market?

They're linked, intrinsically. If the someone's "market" (whether that's local, or global, or front-end, or full stack, or whatever) prices then at $80k/yr a business is going to try to pay them that much or less. Whether you want to admit it or not, locality plays a role in that.
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