NEW YORK — When Kate Smith worked a 9-to-5 office job, she was burned-out, suffering from daily migraines and thinking, “I can't do this for the rest of my life.”

She didn't have to. For her next role, Smith landed a remote, full-time marketing job that enabled her to travel the world.

Her laptop lifestyle took her to Bali, where she lived and worked for a year-and-a-half. “Every day, I was riding my scooter through the rice fields and thinking, ‘I love my life, this is amazing,'” she said. “And that feeling never fades. ... I feel so grateful for the freedom and flexibility.”

While Smith, 36, has worked remotely for more than a decade, the trend of ditching traditional office spaces to work from living rooms or beachfront shacks accelerated in 2020, when the coronavirus hit and workers

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