Remote working outside of the UK: practices, culture and building success

Covid and the new digital reality

In 2018, our first child was born. At this time, I lived a short distance (12 miles) from the Studio Republic office in Winchester, which I commuted to five days a week. You could call our setup at the time a very normal and traditional agency model. I would leave the house at around 7:30am and return around 6:30pm, giving me the opportunity to say good morning and (sometimes) goodnight to my daughter throughout the week. 

However, I was becoming frustrated by how absent I was as a new father, and so as a family,  we planned to take extended holidays travelling with our daughter as soon as she was walking and talking. But when Covid hit, all our travel plans went out the window.

Not only did our travel plans change, so did our business. We had to uproot our whole way of working and become a remote working organisation overnight. We quickly bought laptops and adapted our processes so we could continue to operate in the new, digital working reality that was upon us. 

By the time my second child was born during the lockdown period of 2020, I was a fully-fledged remote worker. I was working from home full-time and no longer had a two-hour daily commute, allowing me to be far more present and involved in family life. Not only did this way of working provide me with a whole new work-life balance, it also proved to be very popular with the wider team and so we made the decision to make remote working permanent at Studio Republic.

Becoming a remote working agency

With the decision made to become a remote working agency, we got rid of the office in Winchester and committed to being a full-time, work from home team. The move also inspired us to push further and challenge any status quo,  leading us to think about what else we could do to create an even better work-life balance for the team.

Fast forward to 2022 and we began our trial of the four-day working week. Much like the change to remote working, the four-day week also proved to be a hit and so, we implemented this change and embraced another new working routine. 

This flexible way of working was transformative, but I still found that the itch to travel with a young family needed to be scratched. Having never had the chance to leave the house let alone travel abroad because of the lockdown, we were suddenly under more pressure to make a decision with our eldest coming up to reception age. 

With the clock ticking, we decided to take a leap of faith! After a lot of research and long discussions with friends, family, and the team, we decided to leave the UK in 2021 for a 10-month fixed period in Mauritius. 

For us, Mauritius was the perfect destination. A tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a warm climate, a time zone that fit around the team based in the UK (only three hours ahead), and very good internet that made remote working easy. We also had a family member living there (with friends, advice, support) and we figured it would be a more extreme version of anything else we had considered across winter in Europe!

Living and working remotely abroad

The transition to living and working remotely abroad was really very simple. We left our house, car, and contents in the UK and moved into a different house, drove a different car, ate from a different plate, and discovered new friends, beaches, schools, and sights. We inhabited a new, different, exciting lifestyle that we were craving. The children adapted very quickly and I very easily logged onto my Monday morning Zoom call with a very similar white walled background. The only difference was,  I was wearing shorts! 

The weeks flew by and very little seemed to be affected work-wise. We had our usual check-ins, project sessions,  and workshops as normal. The biggest difference was that when I wasn’t working, I was able to enjoy my downtime more than ever before. From relaxing on the beach, visiting waterfalls, hiking in the mountains, going on weekend getaways, and generally spending most of every minute outdoors. 

Also, the time zone changes meant I was able to take the children to school every morning because the later start meant I had mornings free.  I exercised before work everyday meaning I was very alert and ready for the working day, which is key when you are sitting at a desk for 8 hours!  

Not only that, but business continued to grow and the months soon flew past. Before long, our 10-month stint was over. We made incredible friends, enjoyed memorable trips and scratched the itch… or so it seemed!

A permanent way of working abroad

We returned to Blighty during the summer, which made the transition back seem a bit easier. For a few warm months, we fell back into our routine, seeing friends, family and the Studio Republic team for a summer meetup. As planned, our eldest started school in September and Mauritian life seemed a distant memory. 

However, one day after a wet school run, my fiancée came crashing through the office door unannounced and shouted “we are going back!” I initially thought it might just be a bad morning, but after another week of continual downpours, we decided that it would be better for the family if we were back on our warm little island. 

So, after another round of research and long discussions, we decided to put our house up for sale. This time, we knew that we wanted to make it a more permanent move and so cutting away any security would be the only way to do it properly.  With the house sold and our lives packed up, we headed back to Mauritius in summer of 2023 on a one-way ticket. 

Workwise, I made the commitment to fly back to the UK every year and do our annual strategy planning, see our accountants and most importantly, spend some quality time with the Studio Republic team. One of the practices we put into place when we decided to be a permanent remote team was to get together for a quarterly in-person meet up. So, we have continued this tradition and I now make it back for the summer meet ups. This is the one thing that I wish I could take part in more. 

But, this emigration has also inspired the team to travel and work more flexibly too, which we fully support! Our UX Lead Harley has spent the summer working across Europe from his campervan (alongside Starlink), Silvia has worked from Italy whilst visiting family, Christina has worked from Cyprus, and Claudia in Cabo Verde for a working holiday.  

It’s been great to embed this way of working at Studio Republic, and while I appreciate it won’t work for everyone, for our business and my family, this setup seems to work. We won’t be in Mauritius forever, but for now, it provides the lifestyle that we enjoy, and the business continues to thrive. The work-life balance is brilliant and we are very grateful for the chance to experience it. So, if there is anybody considering working and living abroad and you want some first-hand experience of what, how and why – alongside the pros and cons – then please reach out as I would love to chat.