Comment by tietjens
4 days ago
How common can this really be? And what kind of companies? I’m finding it really hard to imagine this to be widespread.
4 days ago
How common can this really be? And what kind of companies? I’m finding it really hard to imagine this to be widespread.
I live in a popular Digital Nomad friendly country, and myself included, work with Europe/American companies roughly matching their time zones.
Now, the people I work with know that I'm not really located in the same time zone, but I know people who don't bother to mention it. I rarely get phone calls, but I have a roaming connection active for banking/OTP/etc. Plenty of cheap cafes with great WiFi (500mbps+ almost everywhere), and several times cheaper too.
Microsoft was caught doing it for the US federal government, so presumably Chinese software engineers are working on other Microsoft products too.
I'll just say Microsoft is not the only company doing that, and there are also Chinese-owned SAASes which American companies pay for.
Sadly much more common than it should be. The durations vary widely, but with the price of airline tickets and the nature of corporate software engineering jobs, it's extremely easy to self-justify a month abroad. The US government allows 6 months officially for green card holders.
If it wasn't literally 10x cheaper to live abroad than it is to live in Seattle/San Jose, it wouldn't be as prevalent. And not to mention, the quality of life is often better at the 10x cheaper price as well.
I can give you as much proof as you would like!
Lookup the North Korean version of this with the laptop farms
Example: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-...
Yeah if I'd sneak off to work from another place I'd pick somewhere really nice. Not China.
China spans 9.6M km. It has some of the biggest and most modern megacities (Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen to name a few) and features ancient historical wonders like the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Terracotta Warriors.
The nature spans salt lakes and rainbow mountains akin to South America, to the Northern Lights in Mohe down to karst formations of Guilin shared with Vietnam's Halong Bay.
The cuisine is diverse and dishes popular in places like Xi'an reveal lasting influences dating back to the Silk Road.
If you can't find "somewhere really nice" amongst the myriad people and locations you haven't tried.
I don't want to try when they have an authoritarian government.
Visiting somewhere means submitting yourself to their laws. With China's, that's not an option for me. Having restricted communication with home is a dealbreaker too. I would not let that stand so I'd have to break their laws.
It may be a beautiful country but it's not a beautiful place to be. At least not for someone like me.
Though having said that there are many places I refuse to travel to. The US is currently one as well for obvious reasons.
None of that matters when it's not a safe place to be.
Have you ever been to China?
Because they have some of the most beautiful scenery and buildings I've seen and I've been to dozens of countries.
Personally I wouldn't go there for remote work, because the internet interference is a pain but a holiday definitely.
No I have not. And I never will unless their government gives up its autocratic tendencies. I would never submit to that. Because of that it doesn't matter how beautiful it is, for me it will not be a nice place to be.
You say that because you don't hold a Chinese or Indian passport. Now think of those who do, who have family obligations, food preferences, local bank accounts.
> You say that because you don't hold a Chinese or Indian passport.
Not really. People like it in China, regardless of whether they're Chinese.
I took an English teaching certification course in Shanghai. The teachers for that course were used to rotating around the world as the company held courses in various random locations.
One day the teachers asked what was apparently a standard question for them, "are you planning to stay here after you get the certification?"
And they were flabbergasted when everyone answered yes. Apparently in most of the locations that offer CELTA courses, the majority of people come for the course and get out as soon as they can.
2 replies →