No Internet Backups/Thailand for 180 Days/RTO = Talent Loss

Nomadico Issue #125

Have a Back-up Plan for No Internet

We got the first 124 weekly issues of this newsletter out every Thursday morning…until this week. So to start, a travel reminder: you can't always assume you're going to have Wi-Fi or even cell service where you're going. I found out the hard way on an adventure tour in Panama this week when we stayed at a guesthouse in an indigenous area of Bocas del Toro that turned out to be way off the grid. So no receiving or sending anything. Offline also means you can't get to docs or photos stored in the cloud, so make sure you have important things like your passport and flight/train/bus tickets stored locally on your device. Next week I'll be in the capital city and we'll return to our regular schedule.

Anchorage Off Season

Before this I was in Alaska, with some wild adventures in the countryside, some time in Anchorage, and an Alaska Railroad train ride. It's an expensive place to visit, but especially in the summer when the crowds are at their peak. If you visit during the other nine months after cruise season is done, flight and hotel prices are lower in Anchorage and you don't have to book tours so far ahead. The roads in the populated areas are still open, you can still do a lot of the activities in the cold months, with better northern lights spotting. The big takeaway: Denali peak is often hidden by clouds in summer, but it's much clearer when the weather is cold. See more at the Visit Anchorage site.

More on the Thailand Nomad Visa

Before the latest visa changes in Thailand, most people had to either be a retiree with lots of money in a Thai bank or needed to make visa runs to a border regularly. Now the welcome mat is out for remote workers and you can get a Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) that's multi-entry for five years. You only have to leave the country once every 180 days, a huge improvement for the non-retirees. They're reportedly processing applications in less than a week and the annual income requirement is much lower than most countries at 500,000 baht, currently around US$14K. See a detailed explanation here on the Expat Den website.

The Return-to-Office Backlash

Amazon recently announced that all employees would have to return to commuting to an office and the outcry was fast and furious. Some 73% of affected Amazon employees said they’re now considering switching jobs. Apparently the executives are not paying much attention to recent history when making these decisions. A recent working paper from the University of Chicago shows that companies reinstituting RTO policies see a huge uptick in talent leaving the company. The higher the level of the employees, the more likely they are to quit over the change. Apparently, high performers don’t like to waste time in their cars. See the results here.

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