It never ceases to make me laugh when newspapers or magazines ’suddenly’ catch on to the ‘trend’ of working remotely. Still, as the economy sucks and people are taking pay cuts or working multiple part time jobs, these trend pieces are not going anywhere. Now, the Washington Post has coined the term ‘digital nomad‘ to identify and describe people who – like yours truly! – can do their jobs from anyplace they want (provided it has wifi, of course). Here are some of the reasons/benefits the article gives:
- You can wear whatever you want.
- No one makes you get up at 7 AM.
- You can avoid traffic or crowded public transit.
- You are able to work flexible hours, which is particularly awesome if you have kids or are working multiple gigs.
- “Meetings” can be conducted from your living room, a Starbucks, a library, or basically anywhere else.
- Buying an iPhone is a “work expense.’
- You can meet other digital nomads at your coffee shop of choice.
- If you want to go on vacation, you don’t have to request time off – you just have to make sure your laptop will work from the beach or hotel or airport or wherever.
In other words, your company needs to get with the times and let you be a digital nomad already.
The economy going south has meant that the number of ads for virtual assistants has skyrocketed. All kinds of individuals and companies are touting the benefits of virtual assistants, and – of course – pointing out that you virtual assistants are cheaper than the real kind, since you don’t have to provide a living wage or health insurance. However, while a virtual assistant can plan meetings and send emails on your behalf, there are plenty of things he or she cannot do, including:
- Fetch coffee.
- Fetch drugs.
- Pick your kid up from school.
- Take your dog for a walk.
- Solicit a prostitute for you.
- Stand there while you throw a coffee mug at him/her.
- Grab you a sandwich while they’re on their lunch break.
- Wait in line all night to get you concert tickets.
No one ever said being a personal assistant was easy. But one company is claiming they can handle all the pesky details of life. “Sandy” is a virtual personal assistant who can create to-do lists send you reminders about stuff you need to do. Hmm, we’ve heard of something like that…it’s called Yahoo! calendar reminders.
The problem with Sandy, except for the fact that she’s “in beta,” is that she’s a caricature. We don’t just mean that she’s an illustration, we mean that she’s an outdated cutesy drawing of a stereotypical Girl Friday. She’s drawn like a ’50s comic book babe, except that she has brown hair instead of blonde to indicate that she’s “smart.” To see more about the program (which is actually called I Want Sandy), click here.
