Making Sense of Digital Nomadism, Workplace Surveillance and Resistance

Workplace surveillance is a common occurrence in many traditional workplaces and excessive forms can lead to resistance efforts from employees. However, most of the literature on this topic has been focused on the traditional office worker. There is now a new evolutionary worker that goes against social norms by travelling around the world while working remotely, the Digital Nomad. Therefore, this article aims to incorporate Digital Nomads into workplace surveillance research. This resulted in the research question “How does the Digital Nomad lifestyle interact with workplace surveillance and resistance acts”. To answer this, 5 semi-structured interviews were conducted on Digital Nomads recruited from social media platforms. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic data analysis where 3 main themes were identified: Shift from Traditional Restraints, Perks of Elite Workers, Panopticon’s Future. Overall, Digital Nomads did not experience intensive surveillance and findings supported the idea that they are productive, elite workers, opting to work for employers that do not monitor their employees. It was also found that Digital Nomads take part in minor acts of resistance, but they were not actively resisting their employers. These results suggest the need for future researchers to further expand upon the status of the Digital Nomad worker and explore their experiences of workplace surveillance and resistance.