Judged by been a Nomad Traveller

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
21

Digital nomads have existed for more than a decade. Most don’t house or pet sit. There are many online groups and resources for such folks, including nomadlist.com.

Personally, in 2013, I joined my first tech startup and began building a remote team that eventually numbered about 100 full-time people, with full insurance benefits, stock options, etc. Many of those folks make six figures and that team has grown to nearly 150 people under my successor, plus folks at two companies we purchased. And that doesn’t include hundreds of employees on other teams, who went fully remote starting during the pandemic. The company even IPO’d while everyone worked remotely.

Some folks opt for a normal home base and travel a lot while telecommuting. A smaller number choose to have no home base and instead live as full-time nomads.

At my most recent startup, folks telecommute from all over the world and no one bats an eye about whether someone is nomadic — it’s much more common nowadays.

On teams I lead, I’ve never tracked when people work — they just have to coordinate with their direct managers so their work gets done and they can manage their own schedules. That’s not unusual at companies I’ve worked at.

Working in the tech / startup world, I know loads of telecommuters, including digital nomads. I even mentor some folks I’ve never met in person. We’ve met via video for years.

A funny thing that happened early on, when I started building a remote team: A job candidate had a mom (who was an executive recruiter in the San Francisco Bay Area) who told her the opening and company sounded sketchy and she didn’t think it was a real job — it seemed too good to be true.

Well, her daughter has now worked at that company for nearly a decade, including eventually becoming a new manager and now a seasoned one, who manages telecommuters. When I left the company, her mom wrote me a kind thank-you note about how her daughter had come into her own while working with us (at the company her mom originally didn’t even think was legit to start with, LOL).

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22

Any HO who judged me negatively based on my choosing a different way of life from them, is someone I’d be happy to have my application declined by. You can usually detect that judgey vibe from their ads anyway, so I steer well clear of narrow minded people in all aspects of my life!

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23

I love Nomads ! They’re so responsible as they’ve chosen a way of life that suits them and they can work/ stay wherever they fancy. Good ones have a great work life balance which suits my dog perfectly ! Wish I was younger I’d do it :smiley:

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24

Love your perspective and I wholeheartedly agree with you!

25

I read a Facebook post today where a homeowner made a comment that she wouldn’t have nomads sit for her any more. Her last two sitters were nomads and she said it didn’t go well. No explination.

I have been a nomad for 12 years, sailing, overlanding, and house sitting. In my mind nomads make great sitters because honestly it is exhausting to sightsee full time. Usually when we house sit it is to take a break from travel. I would think someone on vacation would want to be out of the house and on the go every day.

After i read the comment from the woman who had bad experiences with nomads, i thought about why someone wouldn’t choose a nomad for a house sit. Maybe it is the house part. If you have never owned a house perhaps you dont have the appreciation or knowledge to care for a house.

I love not owning a house! But i have owned a few in the past, all old houses, and i understand how to care for a house and what could go wrong.

People are going to puck who they are most comfortable with for whatever reason. This is why as a sitter i like to have a video interview with a homeowner in order to get to know them. I know im already going to love the pet, but not always sure im going to mesh with the pet parent.

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26

Some hosts do want sitters who’ve owned homes before, but that also rules out folks who’ve only ever rented, who aren’t nomads. Homeownership patterns vary across the world. In some countries, there’s low ownership because of costs, cultural patterns (like people living with their families till they marry), etc.

If a host wants a current or previous homeowner, it’s best to specify that, rather than rely on assumptions.

Even among some homeowners, there are ones who are pretty clueless or negligent about how to maintain a home. Like if you’ve ever shopped for real estate much, you’ll see some homes where their owners have clearly neglected their properties, sadly. And taking care of an owned flat or condo falls significantly short of the care required for a standalone home, or say a large property. I say that, having owned a variety of real estate across decades.

Some properties’ care also varies significantly because of location. Like my husband and I owned a vacation home in the desert at one point, which required much lower care than homes in places with a lot of snow, rain, trees and other landscaping, etc. That house didn’t even have gutters, because there was so little rain.

Recently, I sat a home in the U.S. Pacific Northwest during snow, ice and such. I ended up putting on hose bib covers on the outdoor faucets to avoid them freezing and potentially having the pipes burst. It was easy for me, since I’d owned houses in such settings before. I didn’t learn that from owning a condo or from renting.

27

The part about a break in a home is something I mention and stress in my own listing when talking about being a nomad.

I’ve had a couple that I’ve had a hunch were turned down due to being one, but more often it seems to appeal to HO’s.

As said: I try to make it very clear both in my listing and during conversation that my primary draw to house/petsitting is that I normally live in hostels and hotels, am traveling around, and that being in a home, private, doing homebody things with the treat of pets that I lack in my lifestyle currently is a lovely break. That I’ve lived a set-location life in the past so I’ve experience with it and that it’s just nice to have a bit of quiet time with animals at “home”.

With anything, different folks will be comfortable with different things and people but I think explaining that angle makes a helpful difference since nomad life is unusual or even a totally new idea to some.

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