Working from abroad - Spain

This is a short post of all the things I had to do in order to be able to take a step towards my dream of working location independently. I moved to Ibiza, Spain, for three weeks not for a holiday, but for a change of scenery.

First things first - I changed to a job that made it somewhat possible because COVID-19 made multiple organisations rethink their work habits. I used to live in the city centre, not far from my ex-office, but it took me 45 minutes to commute to work each morning. So just the commute took already 1,5 hours of my daily life, and I know many people who commute for much longer.

When we started working from home, I realised with the rest of the world that things can actually be done differently. I didn't need to be physically at the office to make things happen.

Secondly, I started talking about it. I was very open about my thoughts from the beginning in my new job. I was open to my colleagues, and started thinking and researching possibilities together with friends. I negotiated a good time for a three week expedition - a one where I get to take a short break from the darkness and coldness of Finland but at the same time wouldn't leave my co-workers in too much of a distress - meaning there weren't many events that I should've attended physically. Our trip began after mid-November.

Expedition, /ɛkspɪˈdɪʃ(ə)n/ - A journey undertaken by a group of people with a particular purpose, especially that of exploration, research, or war. - Google

Thirdly, we looked for options to stay in southern Europe. We wanted sun, but at the same time we didn't need it to be very warm. In the end we found a place for me and two of my friends to stay in Ibiza. None of us had never been in Ibiza, and we had heard of its reputation as a party location, but we also heard of its beautiful nature, great food and relaxed atmosphere. Especially in November, off-season, it would be a completely different experience. The apartment we were offered was quite small, but we thought we could make it work for the three of us.

For work, we needed to make sure our internet connection would be flawless. There were three of us working every day, and especially I needed a lot of bandwidth to download videos, photos and different marketing materials, so we knew that we couldn't work with a slow or very limited internet. One of my friends brought an antenna, a router and modem and before our flight to Ibiza we bought a prepaid SIM card from Vodafone in Madrid. We knew that we might have to buy more data after a week but it was a small thing to do for a working internet.

What about the problems we faced?

The apartment we lived in was very small, so if we had online meetings we had to separate into different rooms - one in the bedroom, one in the living room and if the weather was good enough, one in the balcony. We did this only if we had meetings at the same time, otherwise most of us stayed indoors because of the rainy weather.

Warning - the picture below was after a really hurried morning. But at the same time very truthful. The rain had stopped for a moment so I sat outside on the balcony for a short meeting with co-workers. Note the three essential drinks: one for energy, one for fun and one for hydration.

In the beginning we had some connection issues as well. The setup for the internet with all the antennas and modems didn't go as smoothly as we had planned and we ended up setting up the connection without the antenna.

The third problem had to do with ergonomics. After working for five days sitting on a sofa, bended over a low table or in some other weird position, I started feeling extremely dizzy, which was something that had never happened to me before - so of course I first let Google determine me all the horrible diseases. In the evening, I went to the emergency clinic and had an examination. The doctor came to the conclusion that my shoulder and neck muscles were so tight that it affected my inner ear which made me lose my balance. I received some medicine and promised to alter my postures more often while working.

Would I do it again?

For sure! Now that I have had a real taste of what it is like to work location independently from somewhere else than inside my home in Finland, I wouldn't want to stop here. I'll tell you all about my plans, once I have some!

-Siiri