I went on a reporting trip to California in August this year to hang out with Michaela Gallagher. She is a digital nomad, a person who is always on the go and works accordingly. In a 2006 Ford Transit Connect, she has everything she needs for everyday life, even clothes and equipment for the winter. When I got into the back of her car, it felt cramped. Naturally. She is around 160 centimeters, while I am almost 190. Before the corona pandemic, it was normal to show up at the office, but today more young Americans want to work from home. The pandemic made Teams, Skype and Zoom “main stream”, and around 15 million workers in the US today either work from home or while travelling. US correspondent Lars Os has met Michaela Gallagher, who for almost four years has lived and worked from her van. But how on earth does she have room for everything she needs on a daily basis? Life on the road In the Søndagsrevyen I tried to tell how one can live a “nomadic life”, and in addition maintain a manageable working situation. Michaela takes care of customers in the company 10Up four days a week. The company has developed the websites of, among others, the White House, the World Economic Forum and al-Jazeera. Everything she needs has been given a place where there is room in the van. Michaela finds campsites, showers, internet and fitness facilities while on the road. Photo: Lars Os / news Most of it is done through video meetings and laptops. 10Up has never had a physical office anywhere since they started up in 2010. It’s a trend that has become more “mainstream” after the pandemic. The new revolution? In the US, the lifestyle of living on the road is not unknown, but rather something exotic. “So I can’t live and live at the same time as I work? How about a toilet? A shower? Space to cook?” Life on the road means that you have to cook more food yourself outside. In the USA, however, there are many campsites available Photo: Lars Os / news I met Michaela in Fresno, in connection with another case in May. I was very impressed that she could live in the tiny van. But it was after I spoke to the Norwegian Sondre Rasch that I gained a greater understanding of what has happened after the pandemic. He is a co-owner of a company that offers health and travel insurance to so-called “digital nomads” and “remote workers”, who are called permanent home office workers in the US. Sondre Rasch started SafteyWing which offers travel and health insurance to digital nomads and employees who want to work while travelling. Photo: Lars Os / news – The car was a revolution in the 20th century. This will do the same for working life, but have even greater significance, he says. A bold claim, but is there anything in it? Covid ruined everyday life The first thing that happened when the corona pandemic hit full force in the USA was that New York was completely shut down. Apart from those who had to show up for work, everyone stayed at home in video meetings. When I reported outside hospitals in the city, the fear of infection was so great that people stayed far away from each other. The streets were deserted. It was difficult to buy food. In April 2020, the million-dollar city of New York was deserted, after several thousand were infected by covid-19 every day. No one knew then how serious the pandemic would become. Photo: Lars Os / Lars Os The large parks were the only escape from cramped New York apartments. Eventually, people fled the big city. The polished office buildings stood empty. Some went home to their parents and children’s rooms, others rented houses and flats in smaller towns where the restrictions were not so strict. The employers shopped around and rushed in software so that you could work from your laptop, as long as there was internet access to work. Children in the US also had to go to school through a screen. For almost two years, that was the norm. Children of all ages in most states had to sit at home for almost two school years. Experts believe it can have a negative long-term effect. Photo: Lars Os / Lars Os The Pew Research Center think tank has collected figures that say around 20 percent of Americans largely worked from home during the pandemic. When covid-19 hit, it flew up to 70 percent. It has almost been a gigantic, involuntary experiment. That several tens of millions of workers had to work from home. I myself haven’t had a “normal” job, where I turn up at the office and work a fixed time, since I left the Armed Forces in 2011. There has been a lot of travel where the work happens on the road and flexibility has been crucial. For me, dealing with a home office was not that difficult. But not everyone can handle working like this. The big layoff Studies have criticized home offices for destroying the collaborative skills of employees. It’s not the same to work on a project when you don’t meet face to face, writes Mimi Nyguen in Times Magazine. The older generations quickly returned to the office when the restrictions were lifted. But something else also happened: Over 32 percent of American employees quit or changed jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021 is called “The great resignation”. Many young workers in their 20s and 30s, millennials as they are called in the US, liked to be at home or out of the office. They preferred the flexibility where they could decide more about their daily work and leisure time. Apple’s new headquarters in Cupertino, California, was completed in 2017 and can house more than 12,000 employees. Photo: JUSTIN SULLIVAN / AFP It has meant that many of them will not return to the office. Employees at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, refused when their bosses demanded they meet at the office at least three days a week earlier this year. And Apple probably has the roughest office premises in the US. In the New York Times newspaper, over 1,300 employees signed that they refused to return to the office. To the neighboring newspaper New York Post, the editor Tom Coffey told that people were in armor. They had to pay much more for fuel, public transport, food and clothing, even though wages have not risen. Inflation in the USA is currently 8.2 per cent. Future working life Other companies, on the other hand, want to take advantage of the situation. Brian Chesky in Airbnb jumped on the trend earlier this year, and no longer requires his employees to show up at the office. Several large tech companies in California have introduced the same rules. Photo: Eric Risberg / AP Airbnb does not require any employees to return to the office. CEO Brian Chesky wrote in April this year that the value of everyone in the company feeling good at work is the key to retaining employees. Do you want to work from home or in the office? Completely up to you. Would you rather live in another city without losing salary or benefits? Zero problem. Have you always wanted to travel without having to take a holiday? You can, up to 90 days a year. But what about meeting colleagues sometimes? Yes, we organize meetings every quarter, it is important to see each other from time to time. Other companies think the same. Because when many young Americans now believe that it is more important to have flexibility and time off from work than high wages, the workers are forced to facilitate it. In Norway too, more people will become their own employees and have greater freedom in everyday life. The truth is, as with many other things here in the USA, it is not black and white. Employees will probably have to worry about standing in car queues in the future, with screaming children in the back seat going to school. At the same time, employers must facilitate a more flexible everyday life. A bit like we have it in Norway, with core time and several days off. Michaela has worked on the road for several years. She told me that this everyday life had given her more zest for life and better mental health. But nothing is forever. She wants to find a permanent home on the day the family is founded. Life on the road means that you have to cook more food yourself outside. In the US, on the other hand, there are many campsites. Photo: Lars Os / news
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Will working life in the US change after the pandemic? – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
