> When Alex Pineda’s bosses decided their employees could work wherever they wanted, the web developer didn’t park his laptop at home or at the neighbourhood coffee shop. He left for Paris.
> “If it doesn’t really matter where I am,” he figured, “then why am I in my own apartment instead of a place in Europe?”
What are the legal implications of this? Technically, this would mean this guy's employer is now employing someone in France (or Germany, Netherlands or Spain which are mentioned later). From the employee's perspective as well, they are almost certainly violating that country's laws if they're on a normal tourism visa.
Remote work seems to be an area where laws (in most or all western countries, as far as I can tell) have not kept up. In the above example, you've got a Canadian remotely working for a Canadian company, but living in a foreign country and spending his money there. Assuming he's using a tourism visa like most would be doing in this position, he's breaking the law but this kind of activity is nothing but beneficial to the foreign country, since he is spending money in the local economy, not competing in the local labor market and not drawing any welfare benefits.
I think the problem hinges on how you define "living in…" if one is in a hotel for a week in Bali, can they claim to have "Lived in Bali"? Usually I believe this is in the 4-6 month range for "Living in a country…" restrictions. The article states he was in Europe for 9-weeks, across various countries.
I don't know for sure that I was within the rules. I simply didn't pay attention to them. I remember understanding that in the US it is as you say and I would not be able to work for a company outside the US. I should have done more research but it was all spur of the moment, all I really cared about was how long I was able to stay in each country.
I agree with you BTW, in your position I'd do the same thing. Pretty much impossible to get caught with this unless you admit it to a border/immigration agent.
So how do we do this for software developers? It's very difficult to gauge how much effort a project or bug or story will take. Without that being highly accurate, some people will finish in a few minutes then chill out while others will feel oppressed and be scrambling trying to finish their unrealistic deadlines.
Even letting the team estimate stories then assigning them randomly is difficult, some members are more skilled than others. What Jim could do in an hour will take Bill a week.
One thought would be to track everyone's velocity as an individual all the time and ensure all stories are small, like under a few hours. Then you'd have a small enough cycle that it should be possible to get a lot more accurate with estimating and making sure people produce similarly.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 38.7 ms ] threadWhat are the legal implications of this? Technically, this would mean this guy's employer is now employing someone in France (or Germany, Netherlands or Spain which are mentioned later). From the employee's perspective as well, they are almost certainly violating that country's laws if they're on a normal tourism visa.
Remote work seems to be an area where laws (in most or all western countries, as far as I can tell) have not kept up. In the above example, you've got a Canadian remotely working for a Canadian company, but living in a foreign country and spending his money there. Assuming he's using a tourism visa like most would be doing in this position, he's breaking the law but this kind of activity is nothing but beneficial to the foreign country, since he is spending money in the local economy, not competing in the local labor market and not drawing any welfare benefits.
more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Canadian_...
Even letting the team estimate stories then assigning them randomly is difficult, some members are more skilled than others. What Jim could do in an hour will take Bill a week.
One thought would be to track everyone's velocity as an individual all the time and ensure all stories are small, like under a few hours. Then you'd have a small enough cycle that it should be possible to get a lot more accurate with estimating and making sure people produce similarly.