SINGAPORE: It is quite the idyllic setting – you wake up to a stunning sunrise in Bali, but you aren’t on vacation. In fact, you are a gainfully employed person. Except that you don’t need to show up for work in a physical office or meet with colleagues and bosses. You just focus on producing what you are paid to do.
In the latest episode of the Work It podcast, hosts Adrian Tan and Crispina Robert speak to Kailash Madan, APAC head of fintech firm Primer. Madan oversees a team of about 10 and all of them are scattered across the Asia Pacific region. The company itself is completely remote – its nearly 120 employees work in 30 different locations across the globe.
He gives an insight into what it is like to work for and manage an entirely remote team and how different that is compared to being a digital nomad.
Here are some of the highlights of their conversation:
Differences in work location
Kailash Madan: “A digital nomad is a subset of a remote worker who is tied to a particular location. Like I am based in Singapore, so I have a set of visas and I have to abide by employment laws here. But I have the flexibility to work from anywhere – from my house or a co-working space.”
“A digital nomad is not tied to a location – they can spend three months in Bali, three months in Thailand. They take care of their right to live and work in different locations. In terms of employment laws, there are differences.”