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??

You would need to check with your employer - mine would allow it on a temporary basis, for say, as week or two. Although there isn't a policy per se.

I have to be within an hour and a half of the office (for no actual reason as I can do my entire job remotely).

Not permitted in my job for many of the reasons others have listed, but also because I work in a regulated profession (legal) and there are potential concerns about 'practicing' as a lawyer in countries where you are not qualified, to the point that colleagues have been restricted from accessing work devices when attending conferences etc in certain jurisdictions. I suspect similar concerns may exist in other fields as well. There are lots of factors to consider!

My therapist does this every year.
My dh does too when we go to America. But as with therapist, he has his own business.
Tax implications but with America at least, it has to be prolonged and we only ever do it for a day or two.

You’ll need to check with your employer but some do; we have a ‘work from anywhere’ policy that allows us to, quite literally, work from anywhere up to 4 weeks of the year.

I didn’t know! She had booked leave to go a week or so later from memory, but as this was just after covid restrictions had lifted you had to self isolate going into the country she said and she didn’t want to waste her holiday isolating - fair enough and we probs would have been fine with it had IT had the chance to assess the risk. As it was she lost a days pay (as IT locked her out the system) and got a verbal warning over it.

Well for one I’m in control of my home WiFi security and no one else has the password. I can’t say the same of a network when I’m travelling.

But I think PP points are more about data laws and data management? We have specific contracts with our clients that allows us to move their data out of the UK to specific named other jurisdictions. We can’t just take their data to France with us (and we’re not a data heavy business, I’m like a solicitor advising someone on a house move, so someone Joe Bloggs could reasonably share confidential personal data with).

But I also wouldn’t necessarily have a visa to work in France, nor am I aware of the tax implications - but the starting point is that your salary is taxable in the jurisdiction where you do the work. So if you’re doing the work in France it’s taxable in France unless there is a relief of exemption.

For all these reasons, my employer explicitly prohibits it unless you have the right to work in another country then it’s considered on a case by case basis.

I haven’t voted as I don’t think it’s a simple yes or no. My DHs company allows upto 4 weeks a year working overseas so it’s a common occurrence for them. We are looking at doing it during the summer holidays. But if his company didn’t allow it we wouldn’t even consider it.

Ask your company if they allow it.

Boo hoo. Yes she can, chances are no one will ever find out.

Gross misconduct where I work.
Work from anywhere upto 4 weeks in a year where DH works.

You need to check the rules where you are. They will know where you are logging in from - specially if it's an office laptop.

My employer is fine with this for some locations (most EU countries that are not sanctioned). We have to obtain pre approval though and can’t exceed a number of weeks for tax reasons. Some of my colleagues that have no young children and are from EU countries get those pre approval and work from their home countries which means they don’t have to use annual leaves for those visits. We work hybrid but it’s 40% in the office so you can do all your office days in 6 consecutive days for example which means you can have 3 weeks where you don’t need to come to the office.
For DH’s employer, it’s a no.
You need to read your employers policy on this, not ask on mumsnet.

Boo hoo?
What does that even mean?
I hope you bring a better level of maturity to your job (if you have one)
If you have I am going to assume that it doesn't involve much reading or comprehension as many many people have said on here exactly HOW her employer would find out and what the consequences could be.
Its not your risk to take so telling OP it will be "fine" is very unhelpful.

Maybe it would be fine but only OP's employer knows that

I'm head of tax for a large international group. It's best practice for your company to have a remote working policy, and it be stated in your contract where you are expected to work from. Where you don't have a policy or you are unsure, you should seek permission from your line manager (who in the absence of a policy should refer it to HR, tax, IT, legal etc for their approval).

Where I'm writing the policy (and I've written a few now), the answer is a default, no to working abroad. I understand that exceptions need to be made to that (usually where people have a family emergency in another country or the business needs them to go) but every single time, it must be signed off by me as the head of function and the tax considerations documented and monitored.

Don't assume, it could land you in hot water.

People do it and shouldn’t. Unless you have a European passport you have no right to work in the EU. Several countries will grant some kind of remote worker visa but there are strict ts & cs.

Often employers ban working from abroad as it can cause regulatory, tax and other issues for them too. Exceptions are sometimes made for U.K. employees who have the necessary passport to work remotely from that overseas country for a limited period, but again, it’s usually restricted in scope.

This is one of those things that is theoreticalyl fine but for whatever reason, some employwers will have rules so just mention it. I have lots of clients all over the world and it's not unusual for me to dial into a call to discover that client A is not, in fact, in New York, but visiting their mother in Peru that week and working from there or whatever.

It is a simple yes or no - either her company allows it or it doesn’t

If you have a home working policy, you should check it. Ours says:

"Should your address change, even for a temporary period, you must inform us immediately so that we may undertake the necessary checks.

We recognise that your workplace is also your home, however, we reserve the right to visit you at home on work-related business. These visits will be arranged with you in advance but it is a requirement of your employment that you agree to such visits taking place for the purposes of, for example, conducting risk assessments on your work environment or performance reviews."

As an employer my main concerns would be:

• security of the network as we deal with confidential client information;
• if you're working from a holiday location, will we need to spend more management time ensuring the work is done as effectively as it would be from home (i.e. are you going to take the piss and just sunbathe while keeping an eye on your inbox - not saying that's you OP, but some of my staff would take a mile if you gave them an inch)
• setting a precedent for others doing the same, who perhaps aren't as reliable as OP.

You can do it but don't tell anyone that you work with. It will get back to the management and you won't be allowed.

its data processing laws, not whether she’s doing her hours work. Perhaps think of it as there are different qualifications / entry requirements for a profession in Britain than in Timbuktu for example, it’s like that for data.

Not really. She works from 8-2, then instead of spending the rest of her day in British suburbia, she spends it somewhere more interesting.

As long as the organization allows it, for tax, security, insurance etc reasons, what’s the problem?

This take just sounds jealous.

This is a weirdly jingoistic comment.

Why on earth would you assume that British internet is somehow superior to foreigner internet?!

😂

Exactly this. How she spends her personal time
is up to her.

Whilst I know I ‘could’ do it, I know that I ‘can’t’. So dreary old U.K. it is for me and the best I can hope for is a couple of months where it’s hot enough to sit in the back garden!

you aren’t comparing two home wifis. You are also ignoring all the other very valid comments. If it’s against your work policy you might get fired if you do it without approval.

The concept of network firewalls, geolocking and IP addresses has passed you by.