When we moved to Spain about two years ago, I didn’t really know if I would continue to work, or whether now was the time for a country lifestyle, homemade jams and chutneys, and a gleaming home.
And in the first six months, I was too busy to even think about work, because of the (often cumbersome) administrative and settling-in processes that come with moving house and moving country.
In those early days, we explored the area where we lived, started meeting people and built our new routines.
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Choosing to work again
During the early days, I focused my energy on doing things around the house, but even though I painted more walls, doors and floors than I’ve ever done before, it didn’t fill up the void that was left by not working.
There were moments when I was wondering about my purpose, having moved from a full-on London job to living in the middle of El Campo in Spain. I was missing the regular interaction with people and the mental stimulation that work provides. And so, after a few months of prowling around, walking, cleaning, decorating and gardening, I made the decision that I wanted to work, in whatever way possible, from my home in Andalusia.
Finding work
Thanks to Covid, working remotely is much more normal than it used to be, and many jobs can be done from the (relative) comfort of your own home. As a freelance HR professional, it wasn’t too difficult to find short-term contracts through my networks.
The difficult bit was contracting and getting paid! It’s still considered unusual to be working from a different country, and in one case it took 4 months for me to be set up on a system as a contractor, with payment taking another 2 months. Not because the client was unwilling, but when processes are entirely UK-based, even something as simple as a Spanish home address or telephone number can confuse the system and cause delays. In the same way, payment was infinitely simpler going into a UK bank account than paying into a Spanish Euro account.
Spanish jobs
It is possible to find jobs locally, depending on what you’re looking for: schools and colleges are often on the lookout for (TEFL-qualified) English teachers, and there usually is a need for skilled builders, plumbers and electricians.
I know of people who have started a bakery and sell their fab sausage rolls, Cornish pasties and glorious walnut and coffee cake through Facebook, and others who prepare fantastic take-away curries in their home, or others again who have started a themed pop-up restaurant.
However, for anything that relates to food, you will have to apply for a licence and have a food safety certificate. If you live near the coast there are lots of restaurants and bars that can provide seasonal work, though demand for staff will fluctuate.
There are also business networks in most cities where you can talk to like-minded people about your business proposition and ideas, not dissimilar to small business networks in the UK. I’d love to be able to work with Spanish clients, and in preparation, I’ve done some psychometric profiling in Spanish for my neighbours, which was great fun, but also made me realise that this is a whole new Spanish vocabulary to master. One day I will summon up the courage and practice my elevator pitch in Spanish at the Malaga business network, but I don’t feel quite confident enough to do so yet!
Tax and working
Not my favourite subject, this, but important to note that anyone who lives in Spain for more than six months is automatically deemed to be a Spanish taxpayer, and has to declare their worldwide income to the tax authorities.
I highly recommend the support of a tax accountant, because on my own I would not have had the language to deal with the technical jargon or the skills to find my way through the Spanish tax maze. Every country is different in the way they do taxes! I had to be set up as a sole trader (autonomo) with a regular monthly payment to the authorities to cover social security.
In the first year of trading, this payment is around €65 per month (and to my great surprise this amount goes up with age!), increasing to around €360 per month after two years of trading. A hefty sum when, as a freelancer, I may not be working every month. But it’s part of living and working in Spain.
Voluntary work
This year, I’ve also started exploring what’s available in terms of voluntary work. There are charity shops, on the coast and inland, supporting different causes. Many of these are related to animal welfare looking for people to help out in their shops, support their fund-raising initiatives and care for the animals – mostly stray cats and dogs. There are other charities too, and I discovered Age in Spain, a charity set up to provide support to UK people who live in Spain and need help with any number of things relating to residency, driving licences, health care or re-patriation.
To work with vulnerable people, I needed a Spanish criminal record check – easy, I thought. But not … after many weeks of frustrating IT systems that wouldn’t communicate with each other, I resorted to an old-fashioned manual form, that was dutifully stamped by 3 different officials, before sending it off in the post. Sometimes, manual systems and lots of stamping are the way forward, and within two weeks I received my criminal record check.
What’s different about WFH in Spain?
In reality, there probably isn’t much difference between working from home in Spain and in the UK. Apart perhaps from the weather – there’s nothing like a short spell in the hammock at lunchtime to de-stress and reflect on the morning’s work. And then there are the views from my desk over the garden with the mountains in the background. It sure is idyllic!
There are downsides too, of course – nothing is ever perfect. My main worry is about the Wifi and our electricity supply. Normally this is fine, and we have no problems. But it did happen once, in the middle of a Zoom leadership training session, that my laptop and all connectivity to the outside world went down. It needed some steady nerves, and a well-charged phone to log in again and continue the session until the coffee break. By that time, whatever it was that had caused the outage had been resolved, and all was back to normal. Phew!
What’s not to like …
The other challenge about working from my home in El Campo is that our cats like to bring live rabbits as presents for me and everyone on the Zoom call. A few weeks ago, I had to insert an impromptu break in a training session, so that I could chase around the room trying to catch the cat, secure the rabbit and take it back outside. I’ve now learnt that it’s best to switch off the camera and audio so that my work colleagues don’t have to endure the sight of the chase and the rabbit’s high-pitched squeals! The rabbit was unharmed, thankfully, (though possibly traumatised for some time to come!).
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