Crawford Times 60 ONLINE

Flexibility is key. “The traditional
way of working is counterproductive
if you have to sit in
traffic for hours inhaling fumes,”
says David Oosthuizen (42),
formerly of Workation that
connects creatives needing a
place to meet and work, with
hosts offering a suitable space.
“The traditional way of working is
counter-productive if you have to sit
in traffic for hours inhaling fumes.”
David Oosthuizen
“Workation aims to be the Airbnb
of the working place, roll out
work-friendly territories, making
it seamless to work on the fly.”
Digital nomad Oosthuizen
recently attended the Festival
of Creativity in Nice but the
Workation idea was born two
years earlier in New York.
“My co-founder Wayne Levine
and I could not find a suitable
place to pitch a proposal
to an American colleague.
Eventually we paid a hotel
nearly a full day’s rate to use
their boardroom, projector,
whiteboard and printer just
for an hour. I knew there
were others like us, needing
a working place with the
necessary facilities just for a
short time.”
Escape Artistry
Today, while thousands combine their
love for travel with work making video
calls from a café in Dubrovnik or
hot-desking in the nearest ‘co-working
space’ *sources predict the rise of a
billion digital nomads by 2035.
“Workation enables people from
South Africa to Singapore to work
wherever suits them, whether a coffee
shop or beach house. Millennials, in
particular, don’t want be confined
to one place. They want ‘workwhere-you-are’
mobility. They want
a healthy travel lifestyle. It’s why
freelance jobs are at an all-time
high,” says Oosthuizen.
Fellow Capetonian, Annette Muller (33)
tech entrepreneur and founder of Flexy
that provides companies with ‘a curated
community of digital nomads, adventure
seekers, innovation addicts, experts,
freelance professionals, and software’
agrees. “Freelancing has exploded as
more companies adopt an irregular
workforce to increase productivity,
relieve stress in existing teams, access
global expertise and more diversity of
skills, all the while cutting costs by up
or downscaling
on
demand.”
After
googling
‘companies
that
embrace
Annette Muller
#flexyworking’, Muller signed up with
Unsettled and last year alone, met
her deadlines from Mozambique,
Greece, Lesvos, New York, Iceland,
Bali and Jeffreys Bay. “I go where
the interesting people are. I love
connecting with local communities
and experiencing life in a new
country,” she says. “By adopting
a new kind of leadership without
borders approach, I had to ‘unlearn’
a lot. I used to believe travel was
either for holidays or work. Since I
learnt to combine both, every day is
an adventure.
“I still have investor responsibilities
and I come ‘on-site’ for board
meetings but our entire Flexy team
works remotely. We love it.”
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