Before “remote work” became a LinkedIn trend, I was already doing it — by accident. Here’s the story of the day my office moved to another country… and I simply didn’t.
Back When Offices Were Forever
I started working for what I’ll call American Company in Belgium back in 2004. Their European headquarters were in Antwerp — my city — and I was rolling out our ERP system all over Europe. I was having a blast: new projects, new countries, new excuses to pack a suitcase and call it “work.”
The Meeting I Missed (Because I Was in Barcelona)
In 2010, I was deep into a project in the Mercabarna when everyone in the Antwerp office got invited to a mysterious all-hands meeting “about the future of the company.” The few of us abroad started guessing — reorganization? merger? free coffee?
One of the tech guys said, “They’ve stopped approving office improvements. Maybe they’re moving.” He was right. When the meeting ended, we got the call: headquarters were moving from Belgium to Switzerland. One hundred and twenty people were invited to move, or… not.
A Collective Dismissal and a Personal Decision
Very few of us actually moved. I went on the familiarization trip with my husband — Switzerland was beautiful, precise, and expensive. But we had just bought a house in Antwerp, and honestly, the more I compared, the more I realized I didn’t want to start over somewhere else.
I stayed to help with the transition, interviewing and training the new team in Switzerland, making sure projects didn’t fall apart. Slowly, my colleagues disappeared one by one until one day my boss said, “Nobody is asking me to fire you. I want to keep you. Work from Belgium, just come to Switzerland once in a while.”
When “Work From Home” Wasn’t a Buzzword Yet
And that’s how I started working from home — long before it was cool, long before Zoom, and long before anyone started saying “you’re on mute.” I loved it. The freedom, the silence, the no-commute mornings.
And somewhere along the way, I realized: if I was working from home… they didn’t actually need to know which home.
The Quiet Beginning of Workation Diva
That was the seed. Before hashtags, reels, and “digital nomad” became a lifestyle, I was already sneaking in a little travel while keeping the work going. Not as a rebellion — just as a better way to live.
💬 What about you — were you already working remotely before it became the norm, or did 2020 catapult you into it? Tell me in the comments — I love hearing how everyone’s “remote life” first began.
💻 About the Workation Diva
I’m Caro, an early pioneer of remote work, studying IT in the ’90s when “the Internet” still made dial-up noises. I’ve been blending work and travel since before it was fashionable, from spa weekends during business trips to half-vacations at my family’s place in Buenos Aires. These days, I live the part-time laptop lifestyle — balancing motherhood, projects, and plane tickets, proving that freedom can come in Wi-Fi and family-size portions.
Workation Diva 