It seemed like a good idea at the time. In 2019, Rebecca*, 55, was working remotely in the UK as a senior business journalist. After working at her company for three years, Rebecca, based in London, fell pregnant with her daughter, but was expected back at work only six weeks after giving birth. Her company was US-owned, so she had a US employment contract, and those were the terms.
As she found it difficult to cope, her former partner suggested they all move to his native Argentina to be close to family. Rebecca could continue to work remotely, and his family could help with childcare.
Convinced it was an ideal solution, Rebecca and her baby were Argentina-bound. She didn’t mention it to her boss, as she was already working remotely and working US hours; she didn’t think things would change enough to warrant bringing it up. “I didn’t foresee what would happen – I thought it would be fine and that I’d get away with it,” she says.
But the wi-fi her partner promised on his parents’ farming property was patchy, and working from noisy cafes in town was challenging, so keeping up with her workload became impossible.
Then the final straw came when her boss asked her to attend a conference in London. Rebecca had to come clean. “He was fuming because I was supposed to be in a senior role, and he ended up having to bring someone from Brussels over to cover the conference,” she recalls. “Then he raised how I hadn’t been performing well, and that he wanted me to leave.”
