How to Hide You Working Outside of the Country as a Remote Worker

I've been working remotely for years now doing different things to support myself but I never had a formal employer from back home.

I started traveling around 2014 and so remote work where you have a boss from back home that is formally employing you was not as common back then but not unheard of I don't think.

It wasn't until Covid hit when that started to change and now you have more people from the US or elsewhere who are working remotely with actual jobs and not just being freelancers or self-employed in some other capacity.

But many of them are facing issues.

You do have calls for some of them to return to the office permanently from what I've heard.

You also hear stories of employers thinking of having their employees work from home part time.

Maybe be in the office for 3 days and outside of the office for 2 as some way to make their company more attractive to potential clients when compared to the competition.

So on and so on.

One thing that you notice though about some of these folks is that some of them are working remotely while living abroad and the employer doesn't know about it.

Perhaps the employer would fire them if they found out.

It's not something I'm familiar with because, as I said, I have literally never worked for an employer while not being a freelancer or self-employed.

Never had to worry that the company I'm making money for will find out that I'm working abroad and then fire me.

But, over the last few years, I have gotten to know the occasional expat or digital nomad here and there that has been working abroad also with one of these more formal jobs.

And some of them have confessed to me (and others) that their employer doesn't know that they are working remotely.

Out of curiosity, I asked one dude who sometimes emails me and has written comments on my blog named Patrick about this situation.

I don't know Patrick personally.

Never met him in real life.

But he is one of my more loyal readers and seemingly he has some knowledge and experience in this area on how to avoid being caught while working remotely.

I don't know how legitimate the advice is but I'll take his word for it as he seems reliable.

Here is the information below that I put into my own words regarding how one can avoid being caught by your employer when working abroad.

Enjoy!

Tip 1: Accept the Worst

The first thing you should do is accept that you might get caught and lose your job.

If you are not willing to accept this risk, don't try working remotely without telling your employer.

It could happen and you need to be prepared financially and in terms of your career if this happens.

Tip 2: Just Ask

Another thing is that a lot of employers wouldn't be opposed to you being somewhere else for just a month.

Others will obviously.

Be it boomer bosses who want you to suffer in the cold winters of Canada instead of a nice beach in Colombia.

Perhaps they think you'll be too distracted by those Brazilian gals sitting on your dick.

Whatever it might be!

They want you to suffer just like they are and/or think you'll be too distracted.

Still, if you only plan on being abroad for a month, it's not the worst thing to just ask.

Tip 3: VPN 

According to Patrick, you should VPN into a non-commercial VPN in the US with a mobile router and a built-in VPN Client and "kill-switch" function.

According to him, this will cut connectivity if the VPN is ever down.

And apparently it'd be very difficult for the employer to ever figure out that you are working in another country.

Tip 4: Dedicated IP

Some websites block VPN traffic.

Most VPNs give you an ever changing IP address.

Even though there are countries that block the VPN protocols for a dedicated IP, you'll want one that is dedicated.

Tip 5: Be Mindful of Clues

Outside of your VPN, it's also a great risk that your employer or some other employee will learn of you working from abroad through little clues that give you away.

For example, it'd be ideal if you worked from a similar time zone that isn't too different from the one that the business is located in.

So if your employer is located in Chicago but you are currently getting blowjobs from lady bois in Thailand, it'll be the case that your time zone is VERY different from the time zone in Chicago.

That could cause confusion and perhaps give you away that you are working from elsewhere like if you mention to someone from work that "it's almost 5 PM" when, for them, it might be 8 AM.

Or something like that.

It isn't just that though.

Maybe you mention to your employer about how hot it is outside when it is raining where they are.

Perhaps you have some weird noises in the background when doing a call that are not familiar to your employer.

For example, you could be working in Mexico City and have ANY number of noises in the background that aren't what you'd hear in Chicago.

Like how you have those yelling COLCHONES as I wrote about here.

Maybe someone yelling out "ELOTES!!"

Or whatever the fuck else.

Unless your employer thinks you moved to some heavy Latino area of Chicago (and isn't Latino himself), he might doubt that you are in Chicago with such foreign languages being shouted out into the wind.

And these are just a few examples.

It could literally be ANYTHING that you say or is heard in the background that might give away that you are not in the US.

So just keep that in mind.

Tip 6: Be Mindful of Wifi

This is an obvious one but it should be said: some areas of the world have shit wifi and others don't.

Someone thinking of moving abroad for the first time might want to be set up near a beach because that sounds like the dream but a lot of beach areas have shit wifi.

Perhaps be mindful too of seasonal things that could fuck up your wifi in whatever area you plan on moving to like if the area will have a lot of hurricanes during a certain period.

It'd be hard to explain to your employer why your connectivity is suffering from hurricanes when they are based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Tip 7: TeamViewer

This wasn't something Patrick said but something that crossed my mind as I was thinking of ideas for this article.

But why not try TeamViewer?

That could help you and keep your PC technically in the US.

To do this, you might want to buy a system and then rent some house space from a trusted friend or whoever you trust to run the PC in the US with TeamViewer access.

Team 8: VPN Ideas?

I'm not sure which VPNs would be best for you as I've never tried them before but I did try looking up some ideas that maybe could help someone thinking of doing this.

Some options I'm seeing online include ProtonVPN, NordVPN, Surf Shark, etc.

Anything to Add?

As I said, I'm not an expert at all when it comes to this stuff.

I've never tried it.

Nor do I have any understanding of how VPNs work even as I'm a bit of a boomer when it comes to technology (only 5 though).

I'm only taking the advice of Patrick and a few others from the internet whose advice I mixed into this article to give a basic understanding of how to get started if you wish to work remotely without your employer knowing.

So I hope it helps someone anyhow as it seems to be an increasingly popular topic for those thinking of moving or traveling abroad while working remotely.

If you got anything to add, drop a comment below.

And follow my Twitter here.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt