Full-time RVing is no longer reserved for retirees. With a laptop computer and reliable Internet connectivity, anybody with good technology skills and motivation can work from their RV and explore the country. Many companies don’t care where their employees are located, as long as they get the job done, including TeamSnap, a Boulder, Colorado-based tech company with nearly 10 percent of its workforce who are full-time RVers.
“When you work from the road, every day brings something new and it actually motivates you to get more work done,” says Kyle Ries, a TeamSnap developer and full-time RVer for the past two years. Ries has worked remotely in previous jobs, but doing it from a sticks-and-bricks home was more challenging than working from his fifth wheel. “For me, working from home easily became like the movie Groundhog Day. Everything was very routine and just boring, really.”
Kyle Reis relaxing with his fifth-wheel.
Changing your office scenery on the fly is a bonus, but when you work from your RV there are downsides, too. Geoff Lanotte (pictured above with his son), a senior software developer for the company, says the biggest hurdle is obtaining consistent Internet connectivity wherever his family travels. “We bumped up our data plans and will probably end up bumping them again . . . RV park WiFi has helped to ease some of the data burden, but you never know when that is going to work, so we don’t count on it in our budgeting,” he explains.
More companies are realizing that the best employees will get the job done anywhere. TeamSnap co-founder Andrew Berkowitz says, “We judge people only on results, not on where their desk is located.” He explains that at TeamSnap, the idea of working remotely isn’t viewed as a “privilege” and says, “Our entire company culture is based around mutual trust, so we give people our full trust on Day 1 and expect them to be awesome.”
If you’re exploring the idea of working from your RV, start your research in the RV.net Full-time RVing discussion forum topic for insight and tips on the lifestyle.