Flexible working has become more acceptable over the years, but it still seems that being free to work from literally anywhere may be a little way off.  Nevertheless, it was interesting to read recently of a new report exploring the best places to work for those people fortunate enough to have the kind of job they can do from anywhere.

Anyway, it was pleasing to see Prague riding high in 2nd spot, which supported the latent desire to perhaps decamp to Czech and work from there one day.  The desire to do work in a place that isn’t a built up and congested city is undoubtedly a strong one, so it’s interesting to see a new venture that is aiming to help merge the desire to travel with the desire to work whilst there.

The service, called Remote Year, is aiming to help people to find flexible work whilst they travel around the world.  The site was created by an ex Groupon employee who was inspired by the challenges he faced when he was personally off seeing the world and trying to find remote work whilst on his travels.

The idea is that people enrolling onto the site travel through 18 countries during a year as a collective of people.  The site takes care of all of your travel arrangements, accommodation and so on, and you work remotely alongside your 100 strong team of colleagues/travelers.

Participants in the program are required to already have a job that allows them to work remotely, although the site suggest they can arrange appointments with one of the dozen or so companies that have teamed up with the site if you don’t have a flexible gig already.

Suffice to say, it’s certainly not cheap, with initial estimates suggesting that participants will need around $35,000 to cover their involvement in the scheme.  The idea is that the travel combined with the relationships you hopefully build en route will make it attractive enough to get people on board in time for the disembarkation in June next year.

It’s certainly an interesting concept, and whilst it does allow people to leave the rat race, it doesn’t seem to be an option that will scale up especially well.  Hopefully ventures such as this one, alongside the likes of Worksurfers, will encourage further innovation in the field however, and see a greater array of options for those wishing to work remotely.