Remote work from abroad – next step from working from summer cottage?

As a result of the pandemic, also we at Kaito have been thinking about our approach to remote work.

It has been clear to us from the start that obliging Kaitonians into any solution would be out of the question. Our culture celebrates freedom and responsibility, and we wanted our post-corona remote policy to reflect that as well. This means that everyone gets to shape a solution that works best for their individual needs.

For some, this might mean coming to the office every day or at least on a regular basis while planning how to develop our offices and arranging fun happenings to re-connect with colleagues in person. For others it means that they’ve been able to move back to their hometowns or work from their holiday homes without having to make changes in their careers.

Working from the shores of lake Como

During the past year, we have received questions from some Kaitonians asking asking if there might be a possibility to extend the remote working opportunities outside of the Finnish boarders. One of them was our Senior Architect Roberto Zagni. We asked him to share his story for this blog post, so let’s start by hearing why he wanted to move abroad in the first place.

Roberto: “I’m originally from Italy but I’ve lived in Finland for 6 years with my family. Me and my wife have always had this dream of buying a house near lake Como when we retire. Our summer holiday in Italy last year made us realize that being in all those lockdowns in Finland with the kids had taken a toll on us. We started thinking, what if we didn’t have to keep our dreams on hold until retirement.”

We anticipated that it would not be exactly effortless to arrange remote work opportunities from abroad, but when we considered all the positive sides, we decided to go for it. Offering remote working opportunities abroad is an exceptional benefit as it offers the chance to broaden your horizons, learn about new cultures and languages and generally experience living abroad in a risk-free way. We saw that having Kaitonians working abroad would also allow us to open doors for recruitment in new areas and explore wider internationalization possibilities.

Unwinding the  tangles of laws, taxes and regulations

With Roberto as our relocation guineapig, we dived into the tangle of laws, tax regulations, insurance agreements and other details to make sure everything would be done by the book. Luckily, we were supported by our knowledgeable partner network and personally, I would not recommend anyone to get into a project like this alone.

After many interesting learnings and confusion followed by sweet moments of epiphany, everything is now set up and in fact, Roberto has been enjoying his lunches by the lake Como for a good while already.

Getting everything set up for Roberto has been quite the process for us and Roberto highlights it has not been completely trouble-free for him either: “Even though there are consultants helping, you can’t just expect to pack your bags and go. The physical move takes time and money and the same goes for local bureaucracy and setting up.”

But as soon as we start comparing the upcoming fall weather in Helsinki and Lake Como and discussing about the views from Roberto’s windows, he adds: “It’s all worth it. I’ve always been divided between Finland and Italy. Now I’ve been given this incredible opportunity to keep the job, company culture and Finnish work-life-balance I enjoy while living in our dream location.”

Hopefully we will soon hear more about the experiences of our new foreign correspondent. And in the meanwhile, you can enjoy some of Roberto’s pictures from one of his lunches beside lake Como and drop me a note if you’d like to hear more about our open positions and remote working opportunities.Image from iOS (6)Image from iOS (4)Image from iOSAino Ilkka

People & Culture Lead @ Kaito Insight