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Since Buffer’s beginning, working remotely from various locations around the world – or “nomading,” as it’s come to be known – has been part of the story.

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We want all teammates to experience the freedom of a remote lifestyle to the level they like, including the ability to nomad. That freedom comes with a lot of trust to travel in a way that maintains productivity.

Nomading can be a rewarding experience, but it requires planning, clear communication, and a commitment to maintaining your work rhythm. Below are key guidelines and recommendations to help you navigate working while traveling.

Before you go

• Consider your workflow, responsibilities, and timezone: Take time to think about the rhythm of your work, including the syncs, meetings and goals that are most important to you and your team.
  • Further reading on managing timezone adjustments: Synchronous vs Asynchronous, and managing timezones
• Get advice early. Chat with your team lead, those with whom you work closely and perhaps one of our frequent travelers with to get advice early as you begin to consider nomading. Nomading should not come before team commitments and shared goals, and a great travel experience shouldn’t come at the expense of the team.
• Make your travel plan: How long will you travel? Will you have a home base or travel indefinitely? How long will you spend in each place? Where will you be working from in each spot and what’s the wifi situation there? One example: former Bufferoo Matt put together a great proposal to support his RV remote working experience.
• Ensure that you have the necessary visas: Well ahead of your intended travel period, find out if your country has a visa waiver program with your destination city or if you need to apply for a visa. (If you need help with supporting documents for the visa application for a Buffer-sponsored trip, reach out to Suzanne).
• Check the validity of your passport: A 6-month validity period and two blank pages for stamping is the minimum entry requirement for many countries. Ensure that you have enough time and space left on your passport (you globetrotter, you). If you're heading on a multi-city trip, you may wish to use the arrival date at your final destination (before heading home) and work backwards from there. Renew your passport as necessary to avoid getting stuck at immigration!
• Share your plans: Please share your plans with your team, your lead and the People team at least 1 month in advance of your journey.

On your journey

• Research your destinations thoroughly: Check resources like Buffer Travel Guide and https://nomadlist.com to get a feel for whether a city will be great for nomading or not! It's a great idea to plan out exactly where you'll be working from in each location. Find out where you can get a local SIM card (if you don’t have Project Fi, a highly recommended nomad tool!), how long customs/passport control tends to take at the local airport, if the airport has a track record of detaining devices, whether there’s an electronics store near you that you can purchase replacement equipment at (just in case).
• Travel slow: Frequent travel can be taxing on your productivity (this study is interesting as it relates to sleeping in new places). Consider staying in each destination for a month or longer rather than making shorter trips.
• Relocate on weekends: It’s great to plan travel in such a way that you can be present and available to your teammates as needed. While we encourage disconnected time away, you may not want to take time off for every leg of a trip. Consider taking short trips to the next destination on weekends in order to avoid disrupting work productivity for each leg of the journey.
• Know your wifi setup in advance: It’s great to know where you’ll be working from in each location and what you’ll do for wifi connectivity. If you’re staying in an Airbnb, ask your host to do a speed test for you & to double check that the wifi is unlimited. (Sometimes people have different definitions of “fast” wifi, which might not always be fast enough for a video calls, etc!)
• Have a backup plan for downtime - We’re heavily reliant on connectivity and our devices, and it helps to make backup plans for times when we can’t quite be 100% productive or available when these conditions aren’t met. It’s very helpful to be particularly communicative before and after travel days, and keep your team in the loop if anything doesn’t go according to plan (say, if your laptop gets confiscated at the airport)
• Use your password manager and VPN: Each of us has a ton of access to important tools Buffer tools that could compromise our customers' safety if not protected diligently. In addition to setting up two-factor authentication for everything you can, it's ideal if you can be on a VPN when on public wifi or unsecured networks (even in your Airbnb) to make sure that we keep things secure.

Nomading salary considerations

As long as our salary formula includes a cost of living element, we are applying a cost of living multiplier of '90%' to all nomad salaries.