I Worked From the Other Side of the World for Four Weeks. Here’s What I Learned

Being an expat in Australia can be tricky. I have a great job and life in Melbourne, but being on the other side of the world and in a different time zone from my homeland, Belgium, means that time with family and friends is often limited and can come at a significant cost.

Of course, I want to go back to my home to see my friends and family regularly, but I also don’t want it to be the only holiday I take each year, or for it to prevent me from seeing the rest of the world.

Additionally, when I do take some hard-earned time off to travel to Europe, I want to maximise every second of the trip, often at the expense of any downtime. This can be pretty intense on me personally, but also on friends who I find myself strongly encouraging to join me at the pub on random weekday nights, who quite rightly have their own commitments, holidays and schedules to manage.

Last year SEEK introduced a new Temporary Remote Working policy that allows SEEKers to work temporarily from a location other than their primary location of work for up to four weeks. I took up the challenge in July and it was a game changer.

Here’s how I made it work for me and my recommendations based on my experience for how it might work for you too:

• Free accommodation with your own space is a must — thanks mum! It probably goes without saying that accommodation costs (and availability) are a big barrier to many considering spending four weeks in Europe in Summer. I’m fortunate enough that my mum still lives in my childhood home with plenty of spare rooms for me to not feel like I’m invading her space. No bookings or checkout times. I can just rock up virtually anytime and make myself at home, because it is!
• Take the pressure off your itinerary. With four weeks based in my hometown at my disposal I did away with my hectic holiday schedule and let plans evolve naturally. If no one was available to meet me on a given week night, I took the opportunity to chill out and watch a movie, just like I would if I was at home. Knowing that I’ll be doing this every year also really helps, as I know I’ll have opportunities to meet those I might have missed the following year.
• Make the time zones work in your favour. With an eight-hour time difference, this did take some getting used to, a little bit of commitment and great communication skills. Before leaving, my team and I agreed that I would be working from 7AM-3PM Belgium time, allowing for two hours of crossover time with Melbourne to catch up on all the important events of the day.
  The next two hours were used to spend some 1:1 time with a new team member based in Hong Kong who usually spends this time on his own due to the time difference. So, while I was in Belgium, we could focus on training, which we did every day for 4 weeks! Having this kind of time proved to be extremely valuable and we were able to onboard him faster and more effectively than usual.
  Then I had the rest of my work day for focused time and it was amazing. No unexpected pop ups or Zooms — just pure uninterrupted flow.
• If possible, tack on some annual leave. Between my working weeks, I inserted a week-long holiday in Croatia, and then finished up with a road trip around California. Not only did I save money and reduce my carbon footprint by basing myself in Europe and travelling from there, but over seven weeks I managed the perfect blend of travelling, family time and good old work.

So does the ‘work from anywhere’ concept actually work?

For me, absolutely! I had an extremely productive four weeks. I managed to deliver some projects much faster than expected and the whole team was better for it. I could also schedule some out-of-hours updates without having to work all night or get on the on-call roster.

The flexibility this offered was unparalleled — some days I would end up working 10+ hours, just because I was in the right flow. That allowed me to finish early on other days to catch up with friends.

All in all, I am a strong advocate for our Temporary Remote Working policy and plan on using it every year, for as long as I can afford the flights!