Long before the pandemic, but more since, remote work has become a major option for a lot of individuals locally. Even the government has put some energy into increasing interest in remote work. Many have already quit their jobs locally and are working remotely full-time, while many others are working remote jobs part-time.
But is it really as good as it may seem? And what may be some of the drawbacks of working remotely?
Remote work in itself is what i would consider a passive income booster, given its option of flexibility of time and the overall productivity environment.
The drawbacks in my opinion are derived from personal accountability, as to when an individual is out office will they maintain that efficiency in workloads and timeframes or will it be rushed?
So while remote work may be a new window of opportunity, it does share a good degree of discipline that needs to be executed.
Like any other type of work, if its for you, its for you… if you want to make it, you will do what it takes… most ppl I’ve come across in the remote sphere have been getting promotions. I have a cousin who worked remote and taught part-time. Now he’s working full time remote after getting promoted. I know another girl who got a promotion after 6 months and now heads her own team. But there are also those who this type of work just wasn’t made for. Its a discipline… and so is working in the office.
The pandemic pushed more legacy minded leaders to at least try remote work, but to your point there requires a high degree of accountability to be successful in remote.
I’ve managed a team of 50+ engineers for over 3 years fully remote with people spanning from Australia, India and coast to coast of the americas and the only time I expect people to be fully available is for scheduled meetings. Async communication tools like Slack and On call rotations should help solve the support angle and if your company is client facing you need people in the same timezone. As leaders of organizations we have to make information available and one book that was introduced to me called “Running Remote” is a good source of information on executing a fully remote model. TLDR; document everything, easy to follow procedures, async communication and what’s called a balanced scorecard.
That being said not all roles can be done remotely but for tech I would say I haven’t seen many that can’t.
The other aspect for orgs to consider is some people don’t have the home office to be productive so providing a space for them that group is a must, that doesn’t mean you need a head office everywhere but a shared working space that your team can use comes in really handy. On island it would be nice to see more coffee shops and co-working spaces to support that.
U preaching there. This is the 1 thing i’d love to see more. Been begging for a coffee shop atmosphere. I noticed we have a few coming up slowly. Tropical blends, ka-tai to some extent and of course Petite Paris…
I’ve been working fully remote for just over a year and a half with a fully remote team. Mostly using Discord for our office space. We used to be on Zoom but discord made more sense. Personally I don’t really like slack 
@Riviered my local team is all remote.
I’m not sure that I would necessarily advise someone with a local job to fully abandon it, as opposed to supplementing it with remote work.
It can be as good as it seems. The only major drawback are not fulfilling ones domestic responsibilities as an income earner:
That said, for more social people, losing the in-person office/workplace interactions can be troublesome, and not directly replaceable.
Lack of high reliability on internet and energy can be a problem though.
The government gets it back in VAT anyways. All our money is generally spent here. Its income coming from abroad which means we’re actually putting money into the local economy unlike simply rotating money within the country. It can be looked at as the same as direct foreign investment into the country… I’m not sure that is taxed.
Social Security is the important part though. Its like having a private business in a way, so you have to calculate and put towards your own future by paying into social security.
That point on energy… is a major drawback. I don’t event want to say what my light bill is… Domlec clerk once asked me if I’m running a restaurant.
The government gets it back in VAT anyways. All our money is generally spent here
That’s arguable – you’re not paying VAT on your Amazon.com purchases. And regardless, you’re legally required to pay income tax, at least for now.
There’s no legislation on income gained from abroad… which is what remote work is. But my point of direct foreign investment trumps whatever we could pay from income tax. This money did not originate locally… so it fights inflation caused by those who send money out regularly. (we have a major issue with that as well because the ppl who sent the most currency out of state to not pay income tax. (farmers, etc).
Remote work money comes the other way… from out of state into the island. Eventually they’ll work in some level of taxation, but I think for now they see the bigger picture is more important, and probably why they’ve been pushing it so much. Also reduces the pressure on the government to create local jobs as well.
It’s important the distinguish the difference between permanent/ full-time offshore and contract agreements. Going back to the OP remote doesn’t have to mean offshore, we can work remotely all on island.
What tax requirements are there for individuals (sole-proprietors) to pay taxes locally?
In Canada as a sole-proprietor, you pay personal taxes, regardless of what country that income in generated from and over 30k income you have a tax number that you must collect taxes and file yearly.
It can get really complex thinking of the VAT portion of things and thats where for permanent/ FTE work the foreign company would have to be registered in DA and file local taxes as well.
Hey Daniel R,
Remote work for Dominica locals is a great idea for side gigs and fruitful employment opportunities. Pre-pandemic, you needed to be where the work was physically. The tech sector has opened up in a big way, allowing people to access it from anywhere.
Remote work isn’t just temporarily taking a job through a platform, nor does it have to be low-skilled. You can find full-time work and even build an entire practice reaching customers globally who will pay very competitively, granted you can deliver.
I don’t put this on the government in any way. This is something the individual can access on their own. All the resources are available online. I would not put more pressure on the government, instead, let the private sector take charge. I believe the taxes are also favourable when earning foreign income, which is a huge advantage.