Page 73 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

Moving between places
(functional support) but also the frustrations they encountered (emotional support). The continuous accessibility of online communities supported the maintenance of the relationships. Online communities supported the workers in staying connected.
Connecting with others was not only afforded by a shared physical location but also by social elements, such as being like-minded and sharing similar experiences as nomadic workers. Like-mindedness was a term that was commonly used to refer to the difference to people from more stationary or conventional lives. Especially the first experience of meeting like-minded others was a relief. Kenni explains: “All have very similar experiences, so the people you meet along the way, you kind of share those with them, and they will understand." (Kenni, product manager, #18).
Next to sharing interests, it is also helpful to share the intention of the fleeting nature of the local relationships. This connects to calling new acquaintances ‘friends’ very quickly (see also quote Kylie about ‘re-finding friends’). Specifically, that it was acceptable that the time spend together in the same location could be ended by either person when one of them moved on to the next location. Also, the nature of relationships was not determined upfront, and the physical places afforded the nomadic workers in doing so. Specifically, for digital nomads, the temporary nature of work environments also implied that a place for work could become a place for leisure. Or rather, that this distinction was irrelevant because the digital nomads enabled intertwining these contexts in their work-life practices. Jacky said: “It’s interesting because a lot of my clients are either friends or they become friends. I don’t separate it.”.
On a global level, we also found that so-called ‘digital nomad hubs’ are developing, such as Tarifa (Spain) or Ubud (Bali, Indonesia). By ‘hubs’, we refer to geographical locations around which more members of the digital nomad community clustered, and the infrastructure was targeted at the needs of digital nomads.
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