God created sex. Priests created marriage.
— Voltaire, 1694-1778, French philosopher & writer
As a dreary winter draws to an end, many workers are invariably dreaming of a European summer. But what if you could mix work and play? Several companies are testing it out.
Nearly every morning for the past three months, Kelly Pillay started her day by wandering to one of the local cafes dotting her neighbourhood, finding a small table outside and simply watching the residents of Rome go by as she sipped on a coffee.
She would then open her laptop and begin responding to client and colleague emails.
It was a “stinking hot” 37 degrees most days, and the Wi-Fi could be unreliable at best, but Pillay made it happen. After all, she was working remotely in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.
Pillay, principal at financial planning firm KLI Group, spent 12 weeks working and travelling through Europe.
Kelly Pillay (Her real name …)
She, her partner – who has family in Italy – and her young daughter landed in Munich and moseyed through Zurich and Milan before settling in Rome. She worked flexibly, taking about half of the time she spent in Italy and elsewhere in Europe as annual leave.
The flexibility meant Pillay could log on early, finish late, take long weekends and match her schedule to the European summer.
“I’ve had no issues,” she says. “Indeed, in some ways it’s been good. It means work [at the firm was] continuing 24 hours.
“That email that comes in at 4.30pm [Australian time, so it would have been answered the following day], usually that’s flicked along to me, and I’ll pick it up while everyone’s sleeping.”
Pillay’s clients were happy to accommodate her European sojourn. She spent a lot of time discussing her plans with them and made herself available for in-person meetings before her departure.
Some asked to see her for an in-person meeting before she left, but most were content to communicate digitally or consult others in the office.
But although she plans to make an annual habit of this, Pillay says she wouldn’t work from abroad forever. KLI has been offering staff the ability to work from anywhere for up to six months since borders opened in March.
Pillay missed the camaraderie and ease of communication at her office at KLI. Plus, she simply doesn’t believe her role could be performed remotely for too long.
The world’s your oyster
KLI is one of several companies giving staff the ability to work interstate or abroad for extended periods.
Airbnb, Atlassian, Canva, Indebted and several major consulting firms now have “work-from-anywhere” policies.
Deloitte rolled out its policy this year, allowing staff to work from 10 different countries for up to eight weeks. The idea is to allow staff with family and friends overseas to reconnect, says Tina McCreery, chief human resources officer at Deloitte.
So far, 280 staff have taken advantage of the policy, and most have headed to India to spend time with loved ones. The policy is now open only to staff who are residents or have citizenship in the country to which they are travelling. Staff with Australian passports only can still work from New Zealand.
“After being in lockdown and borders were closed for so long, we just had so many people who wanted to spend a longer period of time [away] and really reconnect with family and friends,” McCreery says.
“We’ve got a really diverse workforce and for a number of our very diverse workforce, family is incredibly important culturally.”
The highlight, she says, has been seeing LinkedIn posts showing staff and their elderly parents reunited, or babies introduced to grandparents for the first time.
“We’ve even found for some of our people, if they don’t have family here and they’ve got young kids, their ability to go and actually spend time – say in India, for instance – they’ve got that whole support network around them. It actually gives them time out to spend time as parents and couples.”
Implementing the policy meant prioritising communication and ensuring staff and managers were on the same page about crossovers and how the flexibility would work.
Deloitte limits the length of time employees can spend working overseas to the maximum length of time before workers’ tax situations change.
The professional services firm hasn’t monitored productivity or attrition rates among those who have taken advantage of the policy. But McCreery says, anecdotally, the beneficiaries show a greater sense of loyalty and gratitude to the company.
Baguettes and the beach
Claire Forster, business director at communications company FleishmanHillard, is working from the French island of Ile de Ré. Her family has a house there, and she’s starting about 7am to have a few hours overlap with Sydney.
She works until about 2pm, snacking on the fresh pastries and baguettes she picks up from the local boulangerie every day.
Staff at FleishmanHillard can work from abroad for up to three weeks a year.
”It’s a really good way of being able to extend [a] trip, and have a bit more time with friends and family while still working,” Forster says. “It’s the best of both worlds, really.”
Her team was prepped for meetings during the overlap periods, and they do “mini handovers” at the beginning and end of the working day to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
Paul Bradbury, chief executive at FleishmanHillard parent company TBWA Australia and New Zealand, says: “We introduced ‘homeland leave’ to help our people make up for the valuable time they lost with family and friends through lockdowns and border closures, matching their annual leave with up to three weeks of working remotely at their destination.”
Nearly a third of employees have taken advantage of the leave policy.
Forster says, although it would be impossible to implement full-time, shorter stints abroad are a great thing for her work.
“It’s really good, giving teams that mental break and having that change of scenery and being able to see friends and family while being able to keep in touch with work and feel that you’re still giving it your all.”
Lucy Dean writes about wealth management and personal finance, based in The Australian Financial Review's Sydney newsroom. Connect with Lucy on Twitter. Email Lucy at l.dean@afr.com
