Working from home what are your thoughts?? And possibly aboard

[JHW]

A little background I've had in my head my girlfriend and I are looking at working remotely; she is full-time remote, and I will be until at least January of next year.

We are both young professionals with just a couple of years of working experience in big ole corporate America.

Here is the discussion part comes in two waves

First, what do you think about working from home? Do the pros outway the cons. To me, the biggest con is the social aspect. However, I figure there are ways around that. Open to any tips or suggestions

Second and here is the bigger item she might have the opportunity to work in the UK for a year and then return to the US.

Would you do it? I know the UK is sadly nowhere as gun-friendly as the US, but it is only temporary.

I can work remotely and would not need a Visa, but do you think I would be allowed to? In theory, I have been told I can work anywhere in the U.S. however, UK time is pretty different from the U.S. This is not certain yet, but it has just been on my mind.

As always greatly appreciate the ODT community's insight and lively discussion.

 

[lmitch]

I once worked for a British company in their first American office. If you start work here at 8 they are just getting back from lunch. The very infrequent times it became an issue were when corporate needed to be involved in a decision after lunch here. Very rare.

 

[Hayata]

I've worked from home office since 2006. But I also did a lot of car travel to local customer locations and my own plants so there was the socialization aspect.

The pro is you can go to work in your underwear. Avoid wear and tear and gas $ on your car. Cost of lunches is a lot less (unless you already took your lunch to work). I could go on. In fact, I don't know if I could ever go back to a regular office job again...

Not sure how your business works as far as promotions go, so I can't really comment on not being in the office. Back in the day when I travelled 2-3 nights/week I got to know my customers better and my internal customers (as well as them getting to know me). So I earned my reputation in person. Not really sure how you do that if you never get out from behind a laptop. I guess what I'm trying to say is if there's a lot of politics involved in your workplace you probably need to be there in person to not get passed over.

As much as I would love to move to the UK for a year - I would imagine my wife and I would be on completely different schedules as I would be sleeping in and staying up late to support accounts in the US. Once again, it depends on the kind of work you do. If you interact a lot real time moving to the UK could be a disaster based on the time change. If you're just writing lines of code it might not be as big a deal.

As far as how you could get into the country and live for a year? No clue.

Good luck in your decision!

 

[basstracker89]

My wife and I had always worked on location. The past year plus has been from home and we love it. Hope to do that for the remainder. We work all the time, but we always did anyway.
As far as Europe, I think it would be a great experience. But I think it could wind up much more long term than you think. Those things have a tendency of working out that way. However you're young and you should experience new and different things. Just don't get in too deep that you can't return if you needed too. Good luck

 

[Cipher]

There are some tax implications as an American working abroad that you have to be aware of. I lived and worked outside of the US for several years, so I speak from experience. You need to have a good tax accountant or have the company pay for one on your behalf that specializes in this type of expat tax.

Even though you live and work overseas as a US citizen you still have to file taxes in the US and you can't use the regular 1040ez. The paperwork is more complicated. If you decide to use a tax attorney who specializes in this it could cost up to 3-5K per per year to file. On top of that depending on how much you and your wife makes it maybe taxed in both the US and the UK. According to a quick google search ~ For tax year 2020, the maximum foreign earned income exclusion is $107,600 ($215,200 for a married expat couple). So anything over that you may have to pay taxes in both countries.

Anyway..something to consider. There are other cultural issues that you will have to navigate but that's a whole different topic.

 

[roundhouse]

I’ve visited the UK and i thought it was wonderful but we didn’t visit big cities . We toured a lot of rural areas with a gospel choir .

not gun friendly but if you stay out of the big cities it’s very unlikely you’d see any kind of crime .

 

[Sharpsburg]

I’ve worked at home since March 2020 because of COVID. I’ve liked it. Dress casually, save gas money, and two hours per day commute time has been converted to “me” and “family” time. Eff the social crap…work time shouldn’t be social time anyway. I’m happy at home!

 

[rbstern]

I've worked from home since 1997. First few years, had some gigs with clients that took me to their locations 3 or 4 days a week. Starting in 2001, worked from home. Took me a couple of years to adjust after 15+ years of working in offices. I don't mind offices, but I truly love working from home.

As for the UK part, if you can swing it, it sounds like a great opportunity. Not many people get to live an work abroad for a year. Do it, if you can, for no other reason than the experience.

 

[JHW]

I've worked from home office since 2006. But I also did a lot of car travel to local customer locations and my own plants so there was the socialization aspect.

The pro is you can go to work in your underwear. Avoid wear and tear and gas $ on your car. Cost of lunches is a lot less (unless you already took your lunch to work). I could go on. In fact, I don't know if I could ever go back to a regular office job again...

Not sure how your business works as far as promotions go, so I can't really comment on not being in the office. Back in the day when I travelled 2-3 nights/week I got to know my customers better and my internal customers (as well as them getting to know me). So I earned my reputation in person. Not really sure how you do that if you never get out from behind a laptop. I guess what I'm trying to say is if there's a lot of politics involved in your workplace you probably need to be there in person to not get passed over.

As much as I would love to move to the UK for a year - I would imagine my wife and I would be on completely different schedules as I would be sleeping in and staying up late to support accounts in the US. Once again, it depends on the kind of work you do. If you interact a lot real time moving to the UK could be a disaster based on the time change. If you're just writing lines of code it might not be as big a deal.

As far as how you could get into the country and live for a year? No clue.

Good luck in your decision!

That is interesting that is where I am at I have been remote for I guess about 6 months now and they opened the office voluntarily and I think about 10% go in. I would say the social aspect is something I miss but I still choose to be remote because I can do so many things at home and still get my work done. I do have some client-facing work so that is a good point we both will have to travel probably on a monthly basis.

 

[JHW]

My wife and I had always worked on location. The past year plus has been from home and we love it. Hope to do that for the remainder. We work all the time, but we always did anyway.
As far as Europe, I think it would be a great experience. But I think it could wind up much more long term than you think. Those things have a tendency of working out that way. However you're young and you should experience new and different things. Just don't get in too deep that you can't return if you needed too. Good luck

Yes it is very nice the no commute time is the best thing to me. I have worked in Atlanta and my commute would only be 9 miles and it would still take me 40 minutes by car or Marta that always sucked. Plus the ability to multi task at home is something I really do not think I want to give up haha