Working from Thailand isn't a holiday

When I say I'm working from Thailand, people hear the second half of the sentence.

Thailand.

The first half is the one that matters.

The photo nobody takes

Remote work has an image problem. Or rather, an image. A laptop on a table, good light, something blue in the background. The idea that working from far away is a holiday you happen to be paid for.

I understand the photo. I just don't recognise it.

From where I'm sitting, working remotely looks mostly like a time difference. Clients in Spain start their morning while I'm already well into my day. Questions arrive while I sleep. Every decision about when to answer is a small calculation.

Nobody takes a photo of that. It's not very photogenic.

Working from far away doesn't make the work lighter. It just makes it more obvious who's carrying it.

Remote is a responsibility, not a perk

Here's how I see it. If I'm not in Olot, the clients shouldn't pay for that. Not in slower answers, not in worse service, not in having to wonder where I am.

That's the deal I've made with myself. Being far away is my choice. The cost of that choice is mine too.

It means some things have to be more solid than before. Clients writing to the company, not to me. Clear rules about who covers what. Yeray and me agreeing on things before they become urgent, because urgent across a time difference is twice as urgent.

The tools matter less than the attitude underneath. Remote work isn't something you announce. It's something that, done well, nobody notices.

Which, by the way, is exactly how I think about good maintenance. If the client can tell where I am from the quality of the answer, something's wrong.

Why I'm doing it anyway

Because it's a test.

For ten years I've said that I prefer freedom to size. That I didn't want investors because I'd rather answer to clients than to a deadline. That a small, profitable company can give you something a big one can't: room to choose how you live and work.

It's easy to say all that from a desk in Olot. Working from the other side of the world is where I find out whether it's true. Whether the company can run without me sitting in a chair. Whether the systems are real or just good intentions.

If it works, the freedom was real. If it doesn't, better to know.

So far I'd say: it works, with effort. Which is how most true things work.

When I say I'm working from Thailand, people hear Thailand.

I'd rather they heard working. That's the part I'm actually proud of.

P.S. To the clients who've just found out where I am from this post: that was the idea.