Note: I’m trying to focus on “What are good practices for EAs who want to try weird things?” rather then “Should NL/Kat/Emerson be disbanded/reprimanded” until NL posts their rebuttal.
I’m feeling concerned about some specific stuff I’d put in the “working in unusual vistas” bucket. I feel weird because Nonlinear has listed “travel” as a perk on job listings, when it can easily be more of a burden, and looks like it is for certain members of their team (while others have more of the benefits and less of the costs). As someone who lived in East Asia for 7 months across as many different islands/regions, it is really hard to be productive and happy for me in that type of nomadic life. I think it’s hard for most people. But the last ~year, seeing NL’s (and Kat’s[1]) positive posts I’d been rethinking that. Now, what I’m reading from Chloe is more in line with my memories of the hassle and why I recommend against it. So I think re: job listings:
Necessary travel should not be listed as a job perk, but a key job traitwith both pros and cons and emphasis on suitability for certain less than common personalities. And hirers for travelling positions should try really hard to sort out the people who won’t like it.
It should be made clear how much of an assistant’s job description is literally “dealing with the hassles of travel and working abroad for the team”. To their credit, the NonLinear job listings do address this, but it is at the bottom and general. I mean it should be semi-granular on the listing, like “~10 hours/week”, because I think the amount it was for Chloe (sounds substantial) might have been a surprise and added to reasonable resentment and trapped and useless feelings.
I also think “helping your boss with their personal tasks” should be discussed more granularly (maybe it was in interviews IDK, but seems good to get specific early and in writing)
I additionally suspect (with low confidence because I don’t know what’s normal in business/nonprofits) that for personal tasks, accounting and pay source should be different for those hours, maybe.
Less relevantly, I have seen Kat promote working abroad and nomadic living as seemingly a really good solution to EAs who follow her on Facebook or her blog. I feel weird that I have not seen Kat post a cons list for travel, but this is a footnote because I also think it isn’t generally her responsibility in her personal social media to talk about more than what she is excited about. It is everyone’s responsibility to do their own research/not be easily influenced by what they see on social media. But personally, I think in future if I see someone recommend EAs try nomadic living/work in remote vistas, I will ask revealing questions (like “Do you have an assistant whose job it is to make this easier for you?”) even though it might feel rude.
This was written after reading Chloe’s update
Note: I’m trying to focus on “What are good practices for EAs who want to try weird things?” rather then “Should NL/Kat/Emerson be disbanded/reprimanded” until NL posts their rebuttal.
I’m feeling concerned about some specific stuff I’d put in the “working in unusual vistas” bucket. I feel weird because Nonlinear has listed “travel” as a perk on job listings, when it can easily be more of a burden, and looks like it is for certain members of their team (while others have more of the benefits and less of the costs). As someone who lived in East Asia for 7 months across as many different islands/regions, it is really hard to be productive and happy for me in that type of nomadic life. I think it’s hard for most people. But the last ~year, seeing NL’s (and Kat’s[1]) positive posts I’d been rethinking that. Now, what I’m reading from Chloe is more in line with my memories of the hassle and why I recommend against it. So I think re: job listings:
Necessary travel should not be listed as a job perk, but a key job trait with both pros and cons and emphasis on suitability for certain less than common personalities. And hirers for travelling positions should try really hard to sort out the people who won’t like it.
It should be made clear how much of an assistant’s job description is literally “dealing with the hassles of travel and working abroad for the team”. To their credit, the NonLinear job listings do address this, but it is at the bottom and general. I mean it should be semi-granular on the listing, like “~10 hours/week”, because I think the amount it was for Chloe (sounds substantial) might have been a surprise and added to reasonable resentment and trapped and useless feelings.
I also think “helping your boss with their personal tasks” should be discussed more granularly (maybe it was in interviews IDK, but seems good to get specific early and in writing)
I additionally suspect (with low confidence because I don’t know what’s normal in business/nonprofits) that for personal tasks, accounting and pay source should be different for those hours, maybe.
Less relevantly, I have seen Kat promote working abroad and nomadic living as seemingly a really good solution to EAs who follow her on Facebook or her blog. I feel weird that I have not seen Kat post a cons list for travel, but this is a footnote because I also think it isn’t generally her responsibility in her personal social media to talk about more than what she is excited about. It is everyone’s responsibility to do their own research/not be easily influenced by what they see on social media. But personally, I think in future if I see someone recommend EAs try nomadic living/work in remote vistas, I will ask revealing questions (like “Do you have an assistant whose job it is to make this easier for you?”) even though it might feel rude.