Page 66 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

Moving between places
social aspects of a place, nomads silence their environment to conduct focused work. Next, we turn to a challenge that around the social environment of nomadic workers.
Instant sociality. In the hypermobile setting of nomadic workers, places and people change continuously. This resulted in the lack of a recurring social environment, both personally and professionally, thus making it challenging for the nomadic workers to embed socially. On a personal level, all nomadic workers experienced loneliness to some extent: “Sometimes, you can just meet ten new people, and then you realize, or you go to your Airbnb, and then you realize, I'm still alone.” (Lisa, Design thinking facilitator, #5). This feeling of loneliness was reinforced when the nomads' significant others from more traditional ways of living misunderstood digital nomadism as a perpetual holiday. This common misunderstanding created the perceived need for nomadic workers to justify why they lived this way. Zane explained how this affected his relationships:
"They [friends with traditional life] don't understand it and perhaps might be a bit jealous, it makes it more difficult to stay in touch and have a good relationship." (Zane, strategy consultant, #11)
On a professional level, being an entrepreneur or freelancer in combination with a high degree of mobility had the effect that the nomadic workers lacked a fixed professional environment, such as colleagues, with whom they could have feedback moments, share knowledge and engage in situated learning. When nomadic workers are not able to embed socially on both levels, they risk feeling lonely (personal) and lack the means to develop professionally. Feli said:
“Especially entrepreneurs struggle with because we don't necessarily have those feedback loops or touchpoints with a boss who gives us a feedback review at the end of the months or something.” (Feli, startup coach, #2)
In order to embed socially, nomadic workers enact the affordance 64