Danish couple quit their jobs and now lives as digital nomads in Thailand

[aussienam]

Most digital nomads keep it on the quiet what they do as there is always the fear of authorities making an issue of their working without a proper visa and tax.  

[strikingsunset]

11 minutes ago, aussienam said:

Most digital nomads keep it on the quiet what they do as there is always the fear of authorities making an issue of their working without a proper visa and tax.  

I understand, just cant reconcile how being a you tube vlogger is ' on the quiet' to me its the opposite, anyway enough said. over and out.

[Nabby]

Wow. Never heard of anything like this before, ever!

[John Drake]

16 minutes ago, strikingsunset said:

How does this all work in Thailand, do these people have/need work permits. Also all the Thailand based  ' you tube ' vloggers' generating  income, just do not get it.  

They do seem to be advertising themselves as journalists.  "Mathias Lemvig Larsen has an agreement to do 20 hours of work a week for the company he is a content manager in. Sophie Schou delivers some articles every month and otherwise, she is a freelance journalist."   Accordingly, don't they need a Thai media visa in order to stay for a year.  Perhaps they have them.

[blazes]

2 hours ago, johnnybangkok said:

Spoken like a true Boomer.

 

Work/life balance is a HUGE thing now, with forward thinking employers embracing the concept. I currently have 10 people working remotely (and plan on hiring another 10 soon). Some are part-time, some also have a second job but all are working from home. Technology today means all you need is a laptop and a mobile phone and you can conduct large swathes of business from anywhere you choose. This couple are obviously tech orientated so why not sit on a beach rather than a freezing cold Danish town?

 

Monday to Friday 9- 5 is rapidly becoming a concept of the past; the future is work when you want and where you want and as long as the job gets done, what does it matter? 

 

 

Yes, I guess that kind of job is just hunky-dory as long as you are not a trucker.  Can't imagine the trucker's job being farmed out to Thailand any time soon, but I do hear that driverless trucks are being developed....

 

 

[Dogmatix]

Hope they've got work permits. They will be easy pickings for Immigration police after publicising their names. 

[blazes]

10 minutes ago, John Drake said:

They do seem to be advertising themselves as journalists.  "Mathias Lemvig Larsen has an agreement to do 20 hours of work a week for the company he is a content manager in. Sophie Schou delivers some articles every month and otherwise, she is a freelance journalist."   Accordingly, don't they need a Thai media visa in order to stay for a year.  Perhaps they have them.

Journalists?  So they're unemployed then....

[Chris.B]

2 minutes ago, blazes said:

Yes, I guess that kind of job is just hunky-dory as long as you are not a trucker.  Can't imagine the trucker's job being farmed out to Thailand any time soon, or I do hear that driverless trucks are being developed....

 

It could be, if the trucks are controlled remotely?

[billsmart]

Do they have to have a Work Visa to do their online work while living in Thailand? ????

 

And where do they have to report their income, Thailand or Denmark? ????

[blazes]

2 minutes ago, billsmart said:

Do they have to have a Work Visa to do their online work while living in Thailand? ????

 

And do where do they have to report their income, Thailand or Denmark? ????

Probably best not to ask those questions....

[French mate]

1 hour ago, Chris.B said:

Anyone into serious computing will have multi-screen large displays with anti-glare screens, large hard drives, large RAM, fast CPU, full size keyboard and a large size mouse. Sitting at the beach with a puny 13 inch notebook is not high tech! ????????

 

Its remind me that i first moved with a top of the line 17" laptop and a big mousse in 2014, but in my first 3 month i added an external 24" screen, a keyboard, an adsl land line, a printer...
And nowday i have full desk with a huge and shiny desktop computer, larges screens, 1Gb fiber connexion  and so on...  as result i spend hours in my climatized office room in Thailand rather than hours in my heated office room in France ????

[johnnybangkok]

1 hour ago, DaLa said:

Ad hominem. Starting off labelling someone is never a good idea especially when that person was programming in Fortran in the late 70's. What does it matter what generation I am from , it's completely irrelevant to my comment on the article. I could write a thesis on the benefits and pitfalls of 'remote working' including the fact that their employer  could at any point come to the very realistic financial decision that  the 'job' can be outsourced to a cheaper supplier.   Of course your 'technology' precludes all the plumbers, builders, refuse collectors, fishermen etc. etc. or are you going to leave all those to be serviced by 'boomers'?

Ok, so you don't like 'Boomer'. How about Captain Obvious instead?

 

Obviously 'plumbers, builders, refuse collectors, fishermen' can't be done remotely. That would be silly now wouldn't it? We are only talking about jobs that can be done remotely. But if that job only requires a good internet connection, project management abilities and your professional skills, then remote working is a VERY viable solution and offers a win-win for both employee and employer.

 

Oh, and employers have been able to 'outsource to a cheaper supplier' for decades now (see India for a good example) but remote working is different and covers the nuances of having someone who perhaps speaks a particular language (Danish in this case) or has a particular skillset or has familiarity with a particular project/client. It's here and isn't going away and I for one wholeheartedly support it.    

[Captain Monday]

21 minutes ago, billsmart said:

Do they have to have a Work Visa to do their online work while living in Thailand? ????

 

And do where do they have to report their income, Thailand or Denmark? ????

Must be a slow news day. Good for them. "Thailand" does not care where you think you are tax resident that is between you and your country. Thai law is silent on mobile work paid elsewhere for foreign clients,  they might not owe income tax anywhere. This has been hashed out over and over again. There is now way to police typing on a laptop all day. 

 

Maybe that is why some Thailand authorities  seem to not want digital pikeys living as tourists, fake volunteers and insincere language students  permanently and never paying income tax. At the same time other organs of the state appear to encourage it. 

[Pravda]

3 hours ago, mommysboy said:

Ok, Boomer!

 

You forgot to write have fun staying poor

[Sparktrader]

17 minutes ago, billsmart said:

Do they have to have a Work Visa to do their online work while living in Thailand? ????

 

And where do they have to report their income, Thailand or Denmark? ????

Mind your own business they would say

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, petermik said:

Up to them...enjoy life.

Live the dream for a while, then when your blog/vlog or whatever you call it gets boring back to reality.

[Sparktrader]

1 minute ago, hotchilli said:

Live the dream for a while, then when your blog/vlog or whatever you call it gets boring back to reality.

Or trade crypto

[khunpa]

1 hour ago, dj230 said:

I think this will become the norm soon, im in my mid 20's, moved to Thailand and make all my income online, more than enough to support my living in Thailand. 

For sure will be and I am sure Covid has given many the same idea.

 

I have been working remotely for over 20 years from various countries. Always been grateful for having the opportunity to go where I wanted.

 

It however requires a lot of self-discipline.

 

 

 

[sawadee1947]

So Thailand ist just a Stop over. Sure only for a very short time until they meet all these lovely stupid obstacles.

And I'm sure Australia will not fit when you're from Denmark.

Maybe New Zealand.

Or go back to paradise. It's called Denmark!????

[Millcx]

They should move on sharpish before they realise money is slipping through their fingers faster than they can make it … It will 55555

[poohy]

Oh Mrs ....A nice glimpse of upper thigh 

[Captain Monday]

41 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Ok, so you don't like 'Boomer'. How about Captain Obvious instead?

 

Obviously 'plumbers, builders, refuse collectors, fishermen' can't be done remotely. That would be silly now wouldn't it? We are only talking about jobs that can be done remotely. But if that job only requires a good internet connection, project management abilities and your professional skills, then remote working is a VERY viable solution and offers a win-win for both employee and employer.

 

Oh, and employers have been able to 'outsource to a cheaper supplier' for decades now (see India for a good example) but remote working is different and covers the nuances of having someone who perhaps speaks a particular language (Danish in this case) or has a particular skillset or has familiarity with a particular project/client. It's here and isn't going away and I for one wholeheartedly support it.    

Correct in so many ways. Commercial property is in the pits as employers are seeing the benefits of not maintaining thousands of feet of prime office space in costly cities.  There is a debate whether or  not  business travel excesses will ever return to what they were? I used to be able to live where I want but the pandemic put an end to that as we still need to commute to the US to meet a plane. I'd rather do that by remote control too and I think co-pilots will be virtual from a control center in the refuture in some country. It is certainly technically feasible. Don't think they would be working from home for various reasons. In the long term AI and robotics will replace the builders, plumbers and fisherman too. 

[arick]

They better just get to Australia before they hit the number 

[khunpa]

1 hour ago, Dogmatix said:

Hope they've got work permits. They will be easy pickings for Immigration police after publicising their names. 

Yeah, hunt them down and deport them! Would be great publicity for Thailand. As if the country is not suffering enough already.

[Jiggo]

2 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Yeah think he should go and have a shave and trim as well.

Suppose thats the difference about turning up for work, he can be scruffy at home....no boss to tell him to smarten himself up.

[GrandPapillon]

5 hours ago, RandiRona said:

Sounds more like Dumb nomads than Digital!!

honey moon period,

 

let's talk to them again in 2 years time after going through the loops of their VISA renewal ????

[FalangJaiDee]

I personally could never work in Thailand because I simply lack the discipline given the ease of access to temptation. I’m fine with that. I’d rather come here to do anything BUT work 

[richard_smith237]

It always makes me chuckle with these sort of threads which are like cat-nip to wannabe Immigration Officers !!!... 

 

.... Online work has long been accepted in Thailand... 

 

Some people really need to wake up and drop the stupid “if you paint your own fence you are taking a job away from a Thai”  mentality.... 

 

1 hour ago, Dogmatix said:

Hope they've got work permits. They will be easy pickings for Immigration police after publicising their names. 

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

What is her Onlyfans ID?

[fdsa]

3 hours ago, scorecard said:

• E.g. 'I quickly found:
•  - Expected output was not fully satisfactory and
•  - That I needed to spend more time supervising / pushing the remote digital nomads than I wanted to.
•  - Outputs/submissions from the digital nomads contained very litte/zero innovations or creativity  and when this point was raided the digital nomads mostly commented 'not my job'.
•  - Trying to get all the digital nomads together in the same room for a six monthly (?) review was a nightmare and not productive.
•  - At the request of one then several digital nomads to conduct the six monthly review by zoom or skype was also unproductive - in fact a waste of time.

I totally agree with every single word, had the very same experience managing several remote workers and even a few living on the very same island in Thailand. And being a kind of such remote worker myself I could confirm that it is extremely difficult to work productively from home, it's just a very different atmosphere compared to the office.

So if you want your project to succeed - you should rent an office and collect your "digital nomads" there, for a usual 5/2 schedule.

 

3 hours ago, scorecard said:

In a circumstance like this I would not give a contract to a solutions company who do all their internal work by using remote digital nomads. 

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