2

I am allowed to work remotely 100%. I work remotely from the USA. I would like to work remotely from Hungry or Austria for 2 weeks, 4 times a year. How can I make such a request without being asked too many questions?

I will be working in a different time zone, but I can promise my boss to be available during the standard work times. I can't be honest about why do I need to work from another country as it is personal. Also no IT changes are required to support my request.

I know my boss fears that I may be vacationing on their dime. I am not taking a vacation, I just want to work there for that time.
Another fear that they may have is that I may be working for another company. I am not working for another company either. Maybe I can promise them my tax return to alleviate their fears.

Improve this question
4
  • 5
    "I can't be honest about why do I need to work from another country as it is personal" - I'd rethink this. If you just straight up give the reason, even if it's a tad embarassing, you're much more likely to get something along the lines of "sure, of course, so long as you can still make the weekly sprint meeting our time" rather than a suspicious / odd look.
    – berry120
    Sep 7, 2019 at 21:12
  • 8
    Due to the tax and migration laws of various nations, there's a very strong chance that your employer may not legally be able to allow this, even if they want to. Just off the top of my head, you would likely require permission from Hungary/Austria to work there (a work visa or equivalent) and your employer may also be required to open a branch office there. (Yes, it's often possible to do something like this "under the radar" without actually meeting these kinds of requirements, but most companies are too risk-averse to take the chance of screwing it up and then getting caught.)
    – Dave Sherohman
    Sep 8, 2019 at 9:40
  • 1
    In addition to @Dave's comment... in the US employers are required to have workers compensation insurance. The insurance requires the office location or the residence for remote workers. Can your company comply with similar regulations in a different country? Are they a legal entity in Hungry or Austria?
    – user25792
    Sep 9, 2019 at 5:36
  • @DaveSherohman I do agree with the bulk of your comment, just a minor thing, usually you are legally required to have a work visa if you're under employment of a local legal entity (i.e. paid with local money) and / or residing in the place with the intention of working (i.e. having a house and bills under your name), and, of course, you're not a citizen. OP's situation can be legally considered tourism or business. If OP is an EU citizen, nobody is going to check if they have a work visa or not.
    – Juliana Karasawa Souza
    Sep 9, 2019 at 14:56

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

There is probably a very big legal aspect to this, but IANAL, so I can only talk about the workplace aspect of it.

It is a pretty big request, so it is reasonable that your boss would want to know your reason for doing this. If is definetly something you want to keep to yourself, simply ask them, and explain that it is a very private reason.

Be warned though, you would need to have a very lenient boss to allow something like this.

Improve this answer
2
  • I agree with that and I also want to point out something very important: getting your boss to make special arrangements to accomodate your needs requires your boss to empathize with you and be willing to help you because they believe your motivation is valid. If you plan on stonewalliing your boss, you lose that negotiation weapon and your chances of success are greatly diminished. Legal aspects not withstanding (I'm assuming OP is an EU citizen, so less bureaucracy to deal with and the company can just book it as a trip)
    – Juliana Karasawa Souza
    Sep 9, 2019 at 15:04
  • 2
    Yeah, as a manager I am unlikely to approve such a request if the employee is not willing to give a good reason why I should allow this. If it is a one-off then maybe but the OP states to want to do this frequently and then "it's personal" is really insufficient.
    – onnoweb
    Sep 9, 2019 at 20:15

You must log in to answer this question.