Meet Nadia Harris: Remote work advocate with multilingual, multi-spectrum journey

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Riyadh, Feb 3 (PTI) Germany-born Nadia Harris speaks five languages, earned her law degree in Poland and switched multiple careers before finding her calling as a "remote work advocate", a moniker she gave to herself even before the pandemic-induced 'work from home' became a household nomenclature.

Sharing the story of her fascinating journey, Harris said straddling many worlds with a feeling of "not belonging anywhere" has been "anything but easy".

She was one of the invited speakers at the second edition of the Global Labour Market Conference (GLMC) here held from January 29-30.

The conference was attended by policymakers, industry leaders, scholars, innovators and field experts from over 100 countries.

In a freewheeling conversation with PTI on the sidelines of the Riyadh conference, Harris, 36, recalled her moments of triumphs as a 'remote work advocate' (RWA), as also the scepticism, and a bit of scorn, she had to face from many people, including her friends.

In her candid response, she also shared that when she began to build her 'RWA' brand, some called her "delusional", or a person chasing "utopian" dreams, or what she was advocating was "not serious work", as she challenged the conventional notion of work.

"I call myself a remote work advocate, meaning that I advocate for new ways of working, flexible working, because I believe the 9-5 (9 am to 5 pm) model, the way it has been designed, it has been quite a while, it has been over a hundred years approximately. It does not belong in today's digital era," Harris told PTI in an interview.

"And, additionally, I also believe that everybody should have the opportunity to work for a great company, no matter where they come from and live because the digital era makes it possible," she said.

Harris, who speaks five languages -- English, German, Polish, French and Russian, says she works with companies to let them embrace hybrid and remote working, as also "draft legal solutions" to make sure people really have the opportunity to work with firms that are in different countries, and "it is possible nowadays".

"I have visited over 10 countries for work and collaborated remotely with teams in more than 15 countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia," she said.

Harris, though has never visited India, said, she has "worked with multiple agencies" in India, in terms of participating in events, as well as done "some consultancy".

Asked about her journey and what made her set up a dedicated website to advocate for remote work, the 36-year-old trained lawyer said, her first brush with "remote work culture" happened in 2015 in the US.

"I started working remotely in 2015 when nobody knew what I was doing. I myself, was really surprised, when I got the first opportunity, and I thought, this is not right, as I have to go to the office to work. It turned out, it was completely different, which was a very big surprise to me," she said.

"And, then it was an eye-opener and I started understanding that well. All of the experiences that I combined, my professional work, they don't have to be done locally anymore, I can go global, and this is exactly what I did," Harris recalled.

She, however, admitted, that when she received her first cheque for this work, she thought it was some kind of "scam" since it did not involve "going to office".

Prior to taking up a remote work offer in 2015, Harris said she was working partly in the private sector, and partly in the government sector.

Towards the end of 2019, the world was rudely shaken by the pandemic of the century, COVID-19, which forced people to go for isolation to contain the spread of infection, and companies to universally adopt a 'work from home' norm for a couple of years globally.

While many of the employing firms have resumed physical work at the office, many companies are currently either allowing employees to work from home or have gone for a hybrid work model.

She says the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2019, "boosted interest" about remote working and also among people who supported it.

The professional journey of Harris and what she advocates for somewhat mirrors her personal life too, a multi-spectrum one and not bound or defined by any geography.

"My story is again...turbulence. I was born and raised in Germany. I was part of the typical German culture, but in addition to that, my mother is Polish. My father and part of my family are originally American. So, I was everywhere a little bit, so to say. And, I didn't feel that I belonged anywhere, at the end of the day," she said.

Harris, who calls her laptop, "her office", has been working remotely for the past few years, and currently divides her home between Germany and Poland.

Sharing facets of her educational life, Harris said she graduated initially from a law school in Poland and then got another degree in the UK.

Changing bases and moving places thus has been a part and parcel of her life, and going by the nature of her work, Harris today also calls herself a "part-time digital nomad" and a "fractional HR professional", at peace with the "passionate traveller" within her that is restless to go places.

She shares the facets of remote work culture largely on her LinkedIn account and also about her personal life and routines via her Instagram account named aptly 'RemoteWorkAdvocate'.

Besides writing articles for her website, she posts videos on the two social media platforms as well to reach out to her audience.

A Bollywood fan, she is eager to visit India.

Despite the scepticism she still faces, Harris says, she will continue to walk this unconventional path, defying challenges and limits posed by geography when it comes to work.

"For me personally, I am not even thinking about stopping. I wouldn't exist professionally if it wasn't for remote working. I owe everything to it," she said. PTI KND NSA NSA