To WFH while on holiday abroad so I don’t use up holiday entitlement?

[RaspberryFarfait]

We have already have a big holiday booked this year and DH also wants to spend a month in his home country with his parents during the summer holidays.

He doesn’t WFH, so will use all holiday entitlement, but I do. Colleague is also on leave for some of that time so I wouldn’t normally be able to be off as need to cover.

WIBU to not book holiday, travel over there and work as normal, without telling work. I only work part time and it’s certainly doable.

Only problem is will I be able to log in remotely from abroad? Has anyone done this?

Don’t want to ask work yet as they’ll cotton on!

I think you should tell them because they might find out and not be happy

You will need to get permission to do this.

I think if you go ahead and don't tell them, you will be anxious and worried about them finding out, or if the internet connection fails etc. And that's no way to spend a holiday!

Check with management. Someone on my friend's team did this without asking. They were caught and got into a ton of trouble.

You'd actually be working would you?
Your full time working hours for your entire holiday?
You wouldn't be skiving off, dipping in to work stuff half an hour here and half an hour there and enjoying your time in the sun the rest of the time?

If you are actually going to work and not deceive/defraud/whatever it's called your employers do you think it would be fun for you and your family?

You should tell work. At the very least they will want to make sure that you can access the network without comprising the company’s security from whichever country it is. They will want to be certain that the connection will be compliant, etc.

Deprndimg on where you are going, the country may not permit visitors to work even if the job is being done remotely for a company in another country.

It depends on how you access your IT. If you remote login to internal systems they will know straight away. If work is conducted just over email you could probably get away with it for a week.

However, a month without telling them is taking the piss.

I have my work email on my phone, when I went on holiday recently IT blocked my account as they saw my phone accessing emails from a foreign country. You’ll definitely need to tell them.

Absolutely need to discuss.
Off the topmof my head for my workplace -
Tax implications
Export control restrictions, data protection issues - Basically any UK regulations you have to follow as part of your job will be impacted (might be fine, but they'll be impacted as you're off shore).
We can't log on using a public wifi connection.
What if your laptop is stolen while abroad - is it covered by your travel insurance?

This is strangely aggressive. Lots of workplaces are flexible with working hours.

I'm certainly not sat at my desk all day every day when I'm in the office.

Just ask. If you get caught out it would be very embarrassing and unprofessional.

DS lives abroad and often comes home and works here. His (global) company has a policy that you must live in the country you are employed in but can work a certain number of weeks from another country. However when his laptop packed up he did have to fly back the next day.

but it might work out very nicely. Explain the circumstances and elderly parents. Even a couple of weeks would be nice.

If you don't speak to work about it first you may find you have an awful lot of leave when you get back!
Strictly forbidden in my workplace, done on a case by case basis in DH's but depends on where you'd be accessing from.

Lots of my colleagues do this. Should be fine.

@IncompleteSenten I work part time, 6 hours 4 days a week. DC are preteen, teens. They’d spend most of their time at the nearby aqua park with DH and cousins and visiting 000’s of relatives so won’t be bothered by me working. I’d join in the afternoon on work days.

This is my first fully WFH job, started at the end of last year, so not something I’d ever considered before.

The OP said she is part time so why should she be working full time hours?

Many of us have worked from home for years and end up doing more hours, not less. Even when it's sunny.

The company one of our children works for actually encourages its employees to week overseas for a month each year. The idea that staff would likely be defrauding their employer if they did this seems to hark back to old fashioned ways of working.

You need to ask your company. I work for a global company and this isn’t allowed. We have specialist software, though, and can’t work from a laptop. There are also several rows of IT security measures to get through, linked to a named PC.

@PeacockPartyTime That gives me hope! Not employed by NHS but use the systems (private partner).

Not saving holiday but need to save some for later in the year and can’t be off when colleague off.

Definitely ask first. I have a colleague who’s currently doing this - he’s visiting family abroad for 6 weeks and is working throughout. There are things that have to be considered though - export regs being one that people often overlook!

I think some people assume others behave the way they would (projection). They can't fathom actually working while abroad so they think nobody else would either.

It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

What does matter is how the OP's company views it

I would question why you wouldnt simply ask work.

My work would be fine with this.

My place has a policy whereby people can work from abroad for up to I think 10 days if approved by their manager. More than that could have tax implications especially in the US. I used a couple of days earlier this year to wfabroad, which meant that we could go to a more far flung location than we otherwise would have if I'd had to come home to work.

Up to ten days per year, that is...

I definitely would not do it without okaying it first with my employer. For all of the reasons above.

Also as has been mentioned there might be issues with arriving in another country complete with work equipment.

Doing this would be gross misconduct at my workplace. There are tax ramifications for working abroad and they have a zero tolerance policy on it as a result (public sector).