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??

Mine do it loads but they make their team aware.

they Introduced work from anywhere at my last place and lots of people used it to extend their holidays by a week. it was pretty popular.
it was limited to 3 weeks a year, you had to have permission and be available during UK hours.

Dont try and do it and not let them know because Sod’s Law means something will happen that you have to contact them about and it will go tits up. Or, as other people have pointed out, if you log into any company systems, IT will know.

Just check the bloomin' policy instead of arguing on here

The whole subject may be moot if they don't allow it

You will need to check your policy for working overseas.

My employer certainly would not allow it, we even having to sign documentation that we will not work outside of our own homes, so not allowed to set shop up at friends or families houses.

This. You're trying to turn a weekend away into a week's holiday. We can see it and your employer certainly will. If I was managing you, I'd be very suspicious and want to carefully monitor what work you were actually doing.

My employer has an overseas working policy, if you get prior approval you can work for extended periods of time from overseas. Some countries are banned for security reasons. A colleague did this a couple of years ago when a parent was ill. It isn't an approval that's given frequently as we are required to be in the office 50% of the time and available to come in if needed all the time.

Not compatible, you have an office in Paris. OP by the sounds of it, wants a holiday but doesn't want to book annual leave, so wants to work from wherever she's staying.

I wouldn't allow this is I was her employer

Not allowed where I work unless you are allowed to work in that country without a visa. Or whatever the formal phrase is.

No one on here can tell you. You'd have to check what your employers policy is on this. It can have tax implications so they are very likely to have a policy (unless the company is tiny).

My employer allows it for up to 21 days a year. You can also apply for a longer period under special approval if, for example, you are from another country and wish to spend a longer period of time with your family. I've never taken advantage of the policy though as we've got a dog and very little dog care so would be really hard to do.

We are also required to ensure we use a secure internet connection and my role has some quite confidential and sensitive aspects (not all roles are affected by this) so I'd need to make sure I was logging on with privacy. So quite difficult to work around the pool/in a cafe and therefore probably not worth the bother.

You can assume there is nothing wrong with this and just go ahead. As long as you are getting the work done, how would they even know?

If she is working how is it “holiday”?

Yes outside of work hours she will be exploring but how is that her employers business what she does in her own time?

No you can't assume that AT ALL

What she does in her own time is her own business. As long as she does her work hours it is not “annual leave” while she is working.

Have you actually read the replies on your own thread??

Literally no one has said that.

They've said that you need permission from your company, there may be tax implications (depending on duration) and there may be problems with you accessing data and/or software overseas.

This is all sensible, accurate advice.

The only person who can answer your original question is your employer, but I suspect you don't want to do that because you want to sneak in some extra annual leave without telling anyone!

We have a complicated approval process to do this and it can only be a total of 2 weeks a year at the FTE you work - so 70 hours a year for me on pre-approval, less for part-time staff. And it's not always approved.

It does sound fine. But I would not do it without asking employer first. If you will still get work done and no security issues then they are unlikely to have a problem with it.

You clearly have little understanding of contractual requirements and data protection law.

I wonder why the OP hasn’t asked her company. Is she going to say that she’s researched and found that plenty of people do it, based on responses on Mumsnet?

Ask your employer and get a definitive answer. Either it’ll be, ‘Yes go ahead’ or ‘No’.

I think it’s a fine line between an overseas working policy and someone who would like a holiday without taking AL.

I was just thinking I am doing this next week!

Not overseas though.

Going to my hometown this weekend. Booked Monday as annual leave. Working from my mother’s house on Tuesday and travelling back to London on Tuesday night.

But as others have said this is a question to ask your employer. I assume OP is worried it will seem like a cheeky question to ask.

You'd have to check with your employer.

My sister's friend used to house-sit all over the UK whilst working from her laptop. It was pretty sweet - stay in posh houses often in lovely areas, walk the pets etc at lunchtime. Unfortunately she's now required to work some days in the office, so the house sitting is no more.

In my previous role, an American colleague was permitted to return to visit family on the west coast for a month. He didn't have the best work ethic anyway, so I was surprised. Low and behold, he pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth. His productivity nose dived and he took several days to answer any emails. Now that option is banned for all.

Not saying you would do this op! Great if you can get it.

I remember during COVID, ultra rich US business types were staying and working in Carribbean resorts for months due to the lack of time difference. Lucky for some!

My employee allows it. One of my colleagues has a home in Spain and he often goes out on the weekend and then works from there for the rest of the week

How is it not comparable. Them doing some days from the Paris office and some days from their hotel in Paris tacked onto a trip to Paris.

What is the difference?

Depends on your contract/policy of the company you need to ask them, some are fine with it, others are not.

It is the same.

We have a colleague who has family in a couple of different countries. Some she's allowed to work in when she's visiting, some she's not.

If you want to work abroad, you need to find your company's policy on it and follow that. Most likely, whether it's 3 days in Italy or 6 months in Japan, you'll have to formally request it and fill in the relevant paperwork.

If you have any customer data, or access to company sensitive information in anyway, logging on from a different country without the relevant permissions and online security could be a serious breach.

But elsewhere in the UK is different to working from another country where the internet security will be different from ours.

My employer has no issues with me sticking my laptop in the car and driving it to my parents to work there. They do have an issue with me flying it to a different country and logging on without permission where different rules apply.