Hi,
Me and the wife have been working out what we want to do and want to move to spain. However, what with the credit problems and recession its dented our plans somewhat.
However, I work in computers and my uk based company allows me to do 2 days work at home and 3 days in the office (although I can do more at home if need be). This is quite flexible as I can be home for personal deliveries, cook lunch, etc. I am now thinking of making a proposition to my bosses about possibly relocating to Spain and making frequent visits back to the office for such things like meetings.
They can't tell me that distance will be an issue as I have already proved that distance isn't a problem as I am in the middle of being responsible for managing projects which we offshored to India to save money. They are doing the same work which I do (albeit in a bad way but thats another story - don't offshore to India!!!). The work I do is very difficult to find skilled staff for so it puts me in a position where they would need to re-organise in order to off load my job on to an existing member of staff as finding someone out there who can do my job will mean finsing someone with the skills and then training them up to understand the company and products and the way we work.
As long as I can get broadband and am not too far from a main airport (e.g. madrid or barcelona) it wont be an issue. My company already supply me the equipment to work remotely. Hell, if it can be done from India then I see no reason why they would want to refuse (unless they don't trust me). The main problem I have is that I need to speak with them (my bosses) of my intentions which is practically showing my cards on the table so to speak. I'm willing to take a pay cut as my day to day expenses will possibly be cheaper. I could even change from being permanant staff to 'contract'. Only question is how frequent I need to fly back and the costs of that plus hotel in uk. I was thinking of maybe flying back on average twice a month.
I would like advice from those who do something similar. Is the travelling too much trouble? Is the cost of living in spain no different to uk nowadayss? Is it worth the risk of even asking my bosses? Remember, I'll be letting them know my intentions and we've already have several spates of redundancies at work so its high'ish risk. They might just say no and wait for me to resign knowing they wont have to make me redundant (as they think I will leave eventually).
What should I do??? Would love to do my current job in Spain as it would allow us to earn an income over there until we try and get our business plans up and running after the recession is over.
Too risky to ask my boss? Or stick with working in the uk? Or just quit the job anyway and come over to spain? Is broadband reliable and reasonably priced?
My wife has already survived numerous redundancies at her company (Yellow Pages - advice - dont buy their shares!!!) and is sick of having to do the job of four people now. What with all the working time in the week, nursery fees, lack of time for family, weather, lack of getting any better off, etc. Its time to make some sweeping decisions in our lives.
Any advice welcome! Cheers, Steve