A young woman has warned Aussies about sneakily working from Bali after her friend’s ‘super important’ meeting was interrupted by dancers in their hotel.
Montana, who posted a video of the disruptive dance on TikTok, described the spontaneous celebration as the ‘one thing’ Australian workers need to know if they plan to ‘work from home’ abroad.
Many Australians have been moving to Bali for extended stays and working their office jobs from glamorous villas or the beach – with some failing to inform their bosses first.
Montana, a journalist and social media expert, has been working remotely for two years, gladly trading the daily grind for a life in paradise.
‘I used to live and work on the Gold Coast, I would wake up, go to the gym, go to work, come home and have dinner and go to bed. Every day,’ she said.
‘Now I know there is more to life and we don’t have to be tied to that, I can’t see myself living like that ever again.’
The 29-year-old says she has never been happier or had a better lifestyle than she does now where she works from her laptop at the beach or a local café.
‘We wake up, go to the beach, have a coffee with friends, work from a café, catch a Pilates class, work for a bit and then head to watch sunset with a friend,’ she said.
A young woman has warned Aussies about sneakily working from Bali after her friend’s ‘super important’ meeting was interrupted by Balinese dancers in their hotel
She is currently working from Bali and doesn’t understand why workplaces are so keen to get everyone back to the office grind. She says she’s never been happier or more productive
There are downsides to working remotely – you have to relinquish control of your environment as Montana’s friend found out when this Balinese dance kicked off at the same time as an important meeting
‘I do more – and better – work now because I can do it on my terms. My imagination is working better and I know if I get the job done quickly and well then I can go to the beach or do something fun.’
Montana’s work from Bali lifestyle was thrown into the spotlight after she filmed her British friend’s poorly-timed meeting.
‘My friend was working remote from Bali and had just jumped online to give this very important presentation she’s been prepping for for weeks. At the same time this Balinese dance performance started outside our door,’ she said in a video.
‘I am howling, it is so loud and it’s so obvious she is not in London right now.’
Still amused a week later, the young woman explained her friend’s bosses knew she was working abroad – but not all the stakeholders in the meeting did.
‘She kept a straight face the entire time,’ Montana recalled, laughing.
‘She said afterwards that her laptop is built for people working from abroad so the others in the meeting didn’t hear anything due to good sound masking.’
The Balinese performance included lots of shouting, banging and bells as they paraded through the grounds.
The pair had planned their day around being back in the hotel room for the big meeting.
The young woman says living in your favorite holiday destination gives you the ability to prioritise life over the 9-5 ‘grind’
‘That’s the one thing people who want to work from a holiday destination need to know – you can’t control the surroundings,’ she said.
‘I know a lot of people who have been caught out in meetings because of the noise in the background.’
Montana spent time in Gili T recently and said the call to prayer was distracting for some of her fellow nomads.
The tale promoted many to share their own ‘working from home from abroad’ stories too.
‘I wanted to work from Bangkok but when I got there the IP was detected and I got blocked from Outlook,’ one expat said.
‘I almost got fired when my boss found out I was attending a meeting from a beach club bar in Malaga, Spain,’ another woman added.
‘I had a call once from inside the Colosseum in Rome, I didn’t want to cancel the day trip for one call,’ one more recalled.
Montana said she has been surprised by how many people do their ‘big jobs’ remotely.
‘I know CEOs, lawyers and managers who all work in Bali – some of them even have families here with them. They just want the lifestyle,’ she said.
And she’s right, with many higher-ups sharing their own examples with her.
She now works from cafes, bars and beaches
‘I once defended a deposition from the hotel pool in Cabo,’ one said.
‘I am a stenographer and I have done it from an Airbnb,’ said another.
‘I work in aviation as flight support, which is remote,’ a woman wrote.
Others were ‘furious’ with the women for living abroad and working online.
‘This is the exact behaviour that’s ruining work from home for the rest of us,’ one raged.
‘There is a difference between working from home and remotely. A lot of legal and insurance stuff changes when you switch countries,’ another said.
Montana says her friend locked eyes with her once she got off her call and they both burst into laughter.
‘I was cracking up. I said “girl I don’t know how you kept a straight face”. She was just relieved, the meeting went well,’ she said.
The young woman plans to work remotely for at least five more years and doesn’t understand why so many businesses are cracking down on it.
‘Honestly I don’t want to be rude but the world is changing and they should change or be left behind,’ she said.
‘Staff happiness boosts productivity and creativity. If Covid taught us anything it is that life is short and most of us can work remotely.’
Her life used to look very ‘eat, sleep, work, repeat’. But now every day is sprinkled with fun activities, socialisation and work
Montana says the cost of living in Bali is similar for her as it was on the Gold Coast, but that the quality of her life is much higher.
‘We shouldn’t be stuck in an office, we can do anything anywhere – when you are living the life you want you are so much more creative and effective,’ she said.
Working from home has been a hot topic of late, with Australians who continue to do so at a risk of jeopardising their tax return if they fail to keep a diary of their rostered hours.
H&R Block director of tax communications Mark Chapman said the Australian Taxation Office was likely to demand proof that someone worked from home during the last financial year.
‘We expect the ATO to check claims thoroughly, particularly to verify whether taxpayers have a record of all their working from home hours over the entire tax year, in the form of timesheets, a diary or copy of work rosters,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
New rules came into effect in March 2023 requiring work-from-home professionals to keep a diary of every hour worked at home to claim the 67-cent-an-hour flat rate on their tax return.
That would make 2023-24 the first full financial year where time worked from home needed to be recorded.
‘If you don’t keep a record of all your working hours spent at home from 1 July through to 30 June – so, for the entire tax year – you won’t be entitled to claim the 67 cents per hour fixed rate,’ Mr Chapman said.
The flat rate method is much simpler than itemising out every single expense related to working from home.
‘This method is generally preferred by taxpayers because – apart from the requirement to keep a record of all your hours worked – the documentation requirements are much less stringent,’ Mr Chapman said.
‘The ATO believes that work-related expenses claims are the biggest element in that ‘tax gap’ and have signalled that they’ll be looking closely at these deductions this year,’ he said.