Challenging the dominant work ethic: Work, naps, and productivity of location-independent workers

This paper critiques the centrality of work in capitalist societies and looks at people who have abandoned their location-bound jobs for lifestyle a digital nomad. Five months fieldwork Thailand during first wave COVID-19 pandemic revealed that nomads aspired to autonomy over work, including reducing time. However, pursuing ideal meant negotiating desire minimise labour hours on one hand guilt about not fitting hegemonic values hard other. Digital try overcome dominant ethic talk working productively. While these generally spoke ‘productivity’ terms efficiency, concerns ‘appearing lazy’ shifted register mainstream concepts productivity, such as ‘hard work’. Drawing philosophers need take utopias seriously, this article proposes even if small-scale individualised, nomads’ attempts reorganise lives are an important critique especially post-COVID trends toward more remote working.