The term digital nomad is readily thrown around these days and can be applied to a variety of roles that are traditionally office-based, but can also be performed remotely.
And there’s one member of Enjoy that truly fits the description of a digital nomad – meet James, our van dwelling SEO Consultant!
James has a different take on the whole work life balance, and being that it’s national work life week, we caught up with him while on his travels in France, to find out what a working week in his shoes looks like, and to discuss how Enjoy’s ‘work from where you work best’ approach is mutually beneficial for both James and our agency.
“Okay James, firstly how has your journey led you to work from a van in France – what’s your background?”
Well I haven’t always WFV (worked from van), this has only been the last 3 years. Previous to that I worked like everyone else, full time in an office and did so for 7 years after graduating from University. I’ve always worked in SEO and always agency-side, so that experience has helped me build a decent portfolio of work and experience that I think allows me to build the trust with an agency to work slightly differently. I’ve been working with Enjoy for the last year and a half and I absolutely love it – diverse clients and a genuinely lovely bunch of people to work with!
“There’s working slightly differently and then there’s working from a van in France, why here?”
I don’t always work from France (although it is a favourite place of ours), I’ve spent the last 3 years working from loads of different places! So far we’ve visited 14 countries in the van and plan on seeing lots more, providing the van doesn’t give up on us!
We’ve recently spent the last 4 months in the UK doing loads of life admin (MOT, doctors, new passports), working from the office and seeing friends and family. We ideally like to spend 9 months of the year travelling and 3 in the UK and you’ve caught us right at the start of a new trip!
This trip sees us go down France, then ferry hop to Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and then catch a ferry to Tunisia to spend the three months of winter exploring there. From there it is back up through Europe but our route is pretty fluid at the moment and we’ll probably end up chasing the sun – we’re not fans of the cold!
“That’s an interesting route, but how do you work on the road? Do you have an office in the van?”
We don’t have an office in the traditional sense but like most WFH people, our dining room doubles up as an office (and a sofa/dish drying area) where me and my partner work from. In terms of technology, again we aren’t too dissimilar to WFH’ers with a WIFI setup that picks up 4G signal tied to a sim card. The sim card changes based on what country we are in. This allows us to work from the van and have a pretty seamless experience with my colleagues at Enjoy.
We’re lucky that the 4G signal is pretty strong across most of Europe and we’ve only had to move location a couple of times due to bad signal for video calls and access to the web. The best country we’ve been to for signals has to be Turkey (I know right?!) and the worst is probably the UK - no word of a lie!
“I imagine your working week is a little different to the traditional office workers?”
I don’t think it is to be honest…. We still get up, eat, exercise (infrequently) and have lots of coffee like everyone else, but we don’t have a commute to deal with which is very nice! We still have to make the van up into ‘work mode’ though which can take a little time (sorting the bed, dishes and setting up laptop stands etc.) but I 100% prefer that to the commute!
During work hours I’m like everyone else really, do the work, have calls with colleagues and clients, and eat lunch at some point. If we’re in a particularly beautiful park up, we might go for a walk at lunch or after work, which is a lovely benefit of having an ever changing location. This week we’ve been for a walk along the river at lunch and it really does help to reset the mind and then go again in the afternoon.
“Your non-working days must be quite varied then?”
Definitely! We tend to explore a new place on our days off, whether that’s a town/city or a place in nature, my partner always has something planned for us to see. Recently we spent our days off walking the canal, visiting a little French village, eating lots of croissants and driving south to chase the warmer weather as we head towards Tunisia (our destination for some winter sun).
Things don’t always sail smoothly though; we’ve spent a full week inside because of constant rain, and once we were confined to a remote village because a storm that caused a landslide to block both ways in and out of the place!
Outside of this we’ll have weekly van chores like filling up fresh water, emptying grey water, finding a laundrette, doing a food shop and things like that. That usually takes a day to do and we’ll always find a new place to park up for the night after a day of chores. Even though chores can add up, we’re fortunate to have 3 days to explore, relax or film for our YouTube channel (CourtsandMeeks), so we’ll never complain that it takes a bit longer to do those things when you live in a van!
“Outside of exploring and adventuring, how do you think agencies like Enjoy benefit from flexible working policies?”
Oh I think the benefits are massive! The main one for me is the trust I feel I have from the agency to do the work to the standard they expect without the need to be seen in the office. It makes me feel completely valued and gives me a sense of responsibility to continue to put my all in, and add value for them, so it's mutually beneficial.
Allowing someone to work remotely also gives them the opportunity to grow personally and experience things they never would if they were confined to an office all week. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience cultures, people, places and things that not too many have, all while holding down a ‘normal’ job and I think that experience helps with self-confidence and valuable life skills that I might have otherwise missed out on.
It also allows the agency to attract a wider pool of staff. If you don’t mind where someone works from, then you can cast your recruitment net much wider than just the radius around the office. This means you get a diverse range of people that work for the agency, helping broaden everyone’s horizons and acquire unique talents that might have not been available more locally.
“And do you think flexible working is here to stay? Or is it something that will slowly die out?”
I don’t think it will die out but I also don’t think it will be something everyone will be doing in the future. It very much depends on your experience levels, the roles/sectors you work in and the employers attitude towards it. For example – if you’re new to an industry or really want to climb the ladder fast then working fully remote won’t give you the opportunities an office-based role would. While I can do my job effectively from the road, it would be a lot harder if I was learning the ropes and maybe didn’t have the confidence and experience I do now to work more autonomously without guidance.
“Would you recommend van-life and working at the same time?”
100%! Even if it is only for a defined period of time, the opportunity to see places not usually visited by tourists while having a stable regular income is a sustainable way to travel. There are more things you need to think about than when you are in an office, so it isn’t all seaside and sunsets – making sure you are parked somewhere with good signal, thinking about where you will sleep tonight and where is safe are all considerations, but the benefits, for me, far outweigh the drawbacks.
On top of having a regular income whilst travelling, it also gives you the opportunity to spend a bit of time outside your comfort zone. Finding water and trying (badly) to speak the local language can be stressful, but the more time you spend outside your comfort zone, the greater the size of your comfort zone becomes. I used to cringe into a ball of shame when I tried to speak another language and while I’m still terrible at it, I’m more comfortable with trying my best and smiling a lot! Google translate also helps a lot too!
“James, you’ve inspired us. What have been your top 3 countries/locations to work from and why?”
Number 1 - Cappadocia in Turkey
We spent a week parked in the national park where every morning at 4:30am hundreds of hot air balloons take off to see the sunrise over the landscape. It has to be the craziest way to wake up, watching these balloons inflate next to the van and then see a gorgeous sunrise - then start work! We were lucky enough to have the weather that every morning there were balloons taking off and it just meant we started work with the biggest grins on our faces! Although my colleagues were sick of me telling them about it!
Number 2 - Burgas in Bulgaria
We found a park up in April right next to the beach, hidden in the trees and worked there for 3 days. It was still a bit breezy in Spring but we were able to walk along the beach at lunch and as it was 2 hours ahead of the UK, I could have a morning explore on the paddle board before work!
Number 3 - all over Turkey
I know I’ve already talked about Turkey in number 1 but we spent 5 and a half months there over winter last year and the variety of the country was just insane. So many different places to park, everyone we met was friendly and proud we had visited their part of the world. On top of this we never had any wifi issues at all whilst out there so it made working remotely very easy!
