Imagine going loco down in Acapulco, and you have to be in the London office 48 hours later with a hangover from hell and smelling like a boozy coconut. Not cool.
Thanks to remote work, you can have your cake and eat it. Ever since the pandemic, the workplace has expanded beyond borders. Now, Mark from accounting can dial into that all-important Zoom meeting while sipping on margaritas on the beach. There’s no reason why you can’t do the same.
You could hop on a train and explore ancient monasteries, and three hours later, you’re back at your desk preparing your next presentation. Curious? We’ll show you how below.
The Devil is in the Details
The thought of packing a duffel bag and your passport sounds exciting. For your vision to work, you have to be realistic, and that means planning every single detail.
Decide on whether you want to use one place as your base and strike out from there. For instance, you could rent a flat in Prague and spend weekends discovering other outlying towns and attractions.
Create an itinerary and note your downtime and working hours. This ensures you have a healthy work-life balance, because believe us, burnout can strike anywhere, regardless of time zone.
Convincing the Big Guns
Put on your HR thinking cap, as your boss may take some convincing. The more they push back, the more reasons you give them to consider your request.
Becca, who co-owns the Half Half Travel blog, found herself in a similar situation last year. She suggests sharing success stories of digital nomads who make a go of it overseas and thrive.
Remind them of your work ethic and the value of you being remote. Moving employees to another country can open up new business opportunities. You act as the middleman and forge relationships with other companies.
Local labour laws and legal compliance may be a sticky point for your boss. A remote Employer of Record (EOR) solves those issues. Explain that an EOR acts as an employer’s legal entity in multiple countries. The business has fewer vendors and less admin.
Remote, a global HR and payroll platform, adds that country-specific onboarding and localized employment contracts are managed by these systems when it comes to global employment.
No Work Permit Required
The admin part of planning a workation isn’t as glamorous, but it has to be done. Your passport is your golden ticket to the rest of the world. Verify that it’s not expired and has at least two blank pages to travel internationally.
Draw up a list of all the countries where your passport is valid. Then break it down to places that offer digital nomad visas. Forbes lists five countries with the best work-life balance. Check it out here.
The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) makes things a bit more complicated. From October this year, citizens from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K. scheduled for short stays in the Schengen zone were also subject to EES.
Paradise Calling
A digital nomad visa is your quickest way into a country with minimum red tape. TechCabal reports that Africa is becoming quite a popular destination for remote workers.
Mauritius was the first in the Global South to tap into the trend in 2020 by offering the Premium Visa. Cape Verde soon followed and rolled out the Remote Working Program, targeting European and American expats.
Many of these initiatives come with tax perks. Some promise a year-long stay and no local income tax. Others have low living costs and flexible visas.
While there has been some pushback from locals, and understandably so, African Business reports that a single digital nomad contributes $2,700 monthly to South Africa’s economy.
If You Like Pina Colada
All work and no play is not the life you envisioned for yourself. Now, you have the world as your playground.
Plan your workation to the T, and leave nothing to chance.
Bribery and flattery will get you everywhere when persuading management to consider the possibility of remote work. To strengthen your case, Remote explains that employee benefits, health insurance, and global hiring are built into EOR services.
Countries are practically dangling a juicy carrot in front of you, enticing you to work on their shores. The beauty of travel while working is that there are no strings attached. If it doesn’t work out, you can go back home.
And wouldn’t you want to live a life less ordinary and more extraordinary? What are you waiting for? Dust off your passport and your duffel bag.
Images courtesy of unsplash.com and pexels.com
