Please advice me on this travel idea I have

[Hhhhdss]

Is it stupid for me to want to travel to a location on holiday for a bit. And then to work from the office there for a bit to try and experience life there?

Like I want do a long trip to a place and work half weeks.

We have offices across Europe and I have this (probably stupid idea) of interrailing across the different cities. And half working in the office there and half exploring the city.

Contract wise and stuff it's perfectly fine for me to do this. My manager is perfectly happy.

I'd do the half work/half holiday option. You get the chance to travel all over the place and get paid at the same time. You're limited as to how much holiday you can take for travelling.

Re the social side, just an opportunity to meet people, chat over coffee etc would make a difference. I was on my own (apart from my dog).

Well, it’s more sensible to just go on holiday to see these places as you’re not at risk of breaking any rules etc.

But your idea of half working, half travelling is better overall as you’d get to go away for longer (assuming you have limited annual leave of a few weeks). So it’s worth looking into / pushing your luck a bit. 😅

It’s sounds brilliant. I would definitely do the half work/half holiday approach. It’s a different experience completely. I recently did it in the Netherlands for a couple of months using hot desking facilities and had a blast. It felt less pressured than a holiday - because I still had a work routine most days and I also joined a gym. I can’t think of anything better than an inter-rail working holiday. I am self employed and have European passport so that side of things was easy. But surely the tax implications only kick in if you are being paid by the other country? I’m assuming OP will be getting paid as normal by her uk employers, but just using the other offices as a base (like a hot desk situation?).

That sounds fab. I’d definitely do it.

Yes I'll be payed by the UK employer. Just using the other offices as a base.

Yours is a completely different situation from the OP’s. You’re self-employed and have an EU passport and therefore had the right to work in the Netherlands and didn’t put an employer at any risk. Neither of these things apply to the OP.

She should still try to do it, for the experience, but it would require some rule bending.

I’m just thinking, OP, does your employer even have to know? Why can’t you just WFH while you’re travelling instead of trying to use their offices? Just have a blurred background on Teams and work regular working hours (time difference is only 1 hour) ‘from home’.

My company’s IT function can detect if someone is logging in overseas and from which country, but as far as I’m aware, this is used to ensure no one is working in certain ‘restricted’ countries, not to police WFH more generally.

Sounds genuis to me, not to mention instant new friends too

TBH having cross border worked myself and done the admin involved I think some advice being offered here is naive.

The OP might be fine, as others perhaps have been, if they can stay below the radar..and that's probably easiest they work from lodgings or a hotel or a mates. Go into an office, mix with the local staff, they start talking and..
..

Once you start working out of company property all bets are off and the company could be quite exposed legally, certainly in places like France if they have a group employee in the office working on a non local contract.

One well known company got fined tens of thousands for trying that on in France about ten years back.

As for personal taxation, you can have a liability in both the country you are based and the country you actually do the work in...same can apply to Social Charges (UK NI equivalent). If you cross border work you usually have to file a tax return where you work or have physically worked, and often also where you based.

So all the "go for it's" sound great and it's a simple call as an onlooker but there's no way around the fact that legally, due right to work, tax and social charges the OP and the company could be on thin ice if questions started to be asked

I'd go for the holiday option.

Honestly, thank you for this.

No.worries, trying to do this properly can be a bit daunting, however you do it I hope you can get something organised that works for you.

We have a work from anywhere policy: we can work from anywhere in the world for 30 days each year. It's an amazing benefit.

Would it be a possibility for you to simply spend a short amount of time abroad in the cities you want to visit, and work remotely in your AirB&B lodgings so you are just working for your UK company and not their overseas branches? Would that still count as if you were working in another country ? You could pay a visit to their offices just to meet your Spanish / French etc on an informal basis if you wanted to.

Sounds a great idea if your employer is ok

After 3 (?) weeks of working there, you are supposed to register with Italian authorities.

Haha, typical Italy. They also have the manana - tomorrow - way of working.

I've been in HRM in a different EU country. You have to register with the "foreign police" before even starting work.

I hope it works for you OP but various new laws and work visas are making it much harder nowadays - in my day you could just flit down to southern Europe and pick up ad-hoc jobs.

If you get a 3 month business trip visa to any Schengen country, it allows you to work in and visit any Schengen country. That covers a lot of the EU. So you wouldn’t need a visa for every country individually.

I'll look at this. I just thought the travel/holiday and using the offices would allow me to save on vacation days and allow me to see the cities

My employer wouldn't allow any staff to do it - something to do with visas. Else everyone would do it no?

I would do 3 day weeks for your trip, so everyone in the UK knows you are working as normal Tuesday to Thursday, then have the long weekends and evenings to explore. We are allowed to work in another country only if we are a citizen of that country and it’s not on the ‘restricted’ list. We can do up to a month within the May to September window. Like you mentioned, it’s normally used by non-UK citizens wanting an extended visit home to see family

Thank you that seems like a good idea to me.

Just don’t use your employers’ offices and you should be fine. As PP said, for this to work it probably needs to be under the radar. As you’re renting an Airbnb you can work from there as if you’re WFH. Hostels with co-working spaces are another option. You say your company is relaxed about WFH, so I am struggling to understand why you’re trying to work from one of their offices? Why not just WFH?

I like the feeling of being in an office. I like having a monitor as well.

This is something you’re probably going to have to compromise on. Also, you can buy portable monitors. :)