To go abroad when working from home?

[StreakOfTheWeek]

If I went to Italy or France or Spain or wherever... and logged in and did my work - would this be wrong?
I work 8-2 Mon - Thurs normally
Never have to go into office, except for 4 meetings a year.

And I would work as usual, and thought I could then spend the afternoons exploring and taking it all in.

There's nothing wrong with my idea, is there??

Depends on your company’s policies.

My company explicitly don’t allow it, to the extent that it’s written into your contract.

What you're planning to do is go on holiday several times a year without using your annual leave allowance to do it.

You're trying to get extra holiday days that you're not entitled to.

I think your employer will see through that. There's no good asking us ask your employer, but do not under any circumstances, do it without permission.

Then you should be fine, depending on the company of course. I have no trouble going away once or twice a year for 2-4 weeks, and a lot of posters have mentioned a 20-day allowance per year.

If you handle any sensitive data, you would be out on your arse due to violations. If the company you work for doesn’t have a local office and you make them liable for taxes, you’ll be out on your arse.

If you think you can bypass security restrictions via a VPN setting location to the UK, you’ll be found out and out on your arse.

Essentially, if there is no clause saying you can work overseas for X days, do not do it as you can lose your job.

With my employer, you can't work in the UK and live abroad, for tax reasons. But I do know a few people who occasionally work abroad for short periods, with their manager's permission.

There will be your company policies and also requirements of the country you are working in.

I do often wonder how digital nomads work. For example where do they pay tax?

In my company it would be a major breach. We dismissed an agency member of staff recently. Depends on your company policies / security.

This

It's about a lot more than whether the work is getting done. There are legal, tax, cybersecurity, and data protection implications. It was an enormous legal and tax headache for companies during COVID when people thought they could randomly fuck off and work from other countries for months at a time, and most companies now have very clear policies about it. Many will allow it but only if it's pre-declared, vetted, and for a small and limited number of days. Doing it without preapproval is likely to be a stackable offence.

One of our senior managers is essentially a nomad; he and his wife settle somewhere from a few weeks to a few months and then move on.
We are an international company, mostly working remotely so him moving around time zones has benefits.
Obviously it's all approved by the company.
I am sure I would be able to to the same, I just need a laptop and wifi. If it wasn't above board then I wouldn't, so as everyone many people have said - it's up to your company.

Depends on the company. Data policy, tax etc. You need to ask first and not assume.

Yeah. As others have said, my employer doesn’t allow it for data security reasons. I think there have been a couple of exceptions over the years to accommodate family emergencies but it has to be approved and organised with managers and IT

We’re allowed to do it, but there is a list of countries which are approved, and we must fill in an application for the specific dates and have it signed off before we go. It’s not a case of just rocking up and firing up the laptop.

Why are people so convinced that a home UK wifi network is far more secure than France's for example?

We allow short periods of wfh abroad but we do require employees to tell us and have certain rules like being available during UK hours.

do check with your employer

there are implications with tax, employment legislation and GDPR

Do you seriously think that a free hotel WI Fi system abroad is going to be more safe than your secure network at home in the uk?

Once when we had data security training, we were told never to connect our own personal mobile to a free wifi system because they're not safe.

Instead of arguing with us ask your employer, because what's your planning to do is take several extra holidays without using your entitlement
Be up from about that and tell your employer.

Don't be surprised if it all goes horribly wrong if you don't tell them and do it without asking.

It’s more about the data protection. We work with Swedish clients, for example, who only allow their data to pass through certain clouds. Sweden has really strict guidelines about where the clouds are housed, and how the info travels from A to B. Our UK base ensures that the data does travel through from A to B a certain way, and we can guarantee that we are complying with Swedish law.

But presumably you would be going to these countries on a holiday visa not a work visa. "Work" isn't just working for a company based in that country, it is any work, it doesn't matter what your own company's jurisdictions are. I went to the US to do some training for example - I can't remember if I took my laptop or not but if I did, I wasn't supposed to write any articles, do any interviews etc while I was there because that would be work. It wasn't my company that was against it - I was a freelancer actually - it was the US government.

No. My friend's 30-something daughter got a written warning for this at work, because they discovered she had been working (remotely) whilst staying in America.

Don't do it. Why do you even want to/need to?

My employer has a blocker to prevent log-in from the wrong country, unless it's been pre-approved. Approval looks at whether you have the right to work there at all, and what the tax implications of you doing so would be.
So for example, being in Ireland 183 days in one year or 280 days over 2 years makes you a tax-resident. An employer would need to get advice on double-taxation, for each country where they let people work, and do all the paperwork to keep it legal, or they risk a huge fine.

AIBU is irrelevant - either your work allows it or doesn’t.

Mine doesn’t, I wouldn’t even be able to log into the company VPN while abroad

We are allowed to do this at our work with consent in advance.

why don’t you just ask?

We don't for insurance reasons mainly. Our equipment (laptop/phones etc) we can't risk being taken abroad without company insurance which we only issue for business trips. I had a member of team try it and it got found out almost immediately and flagged to our corporate compliance team who were not impressed.

It's not worth it.

A lot of countries require a digital nomad visa if you're planning to work remotely while in the country.

One notable exception is Canada, as long as you're working for a foreign company rather than a Canadian one, you can live and work there for six months just on a tourist visa.

Citizens of some countries are required to pay tax in their home country regardless of their location, like the US. One of the main disadvantages of being a US citizen since you likely also have to pay tax in the non-US country you're in.

Do you have a right to work in "France, Spain or wherever"? If not, its a moot question. Right to work includes working from a hotel/villa/airbnb for a UK employer.