Most Mondays at 5am, a taxi pulls up to take Barbara Harrant to Vienna International Airport. A flight and another car ride later she is at her desk in Lenovo’s UK offices, reaching into a drawer for the make-up that she left the previous Thursday, before starting her weekly trip home. Welcome to the world of cross-border commuting.
Ms Harrant is one of a number of professionals for whom living in one country and working in another solves a dilemma: what to do when an employer wants you to be based abroad but you would rather stay local.
In 2011 more than two-thirds of international employers interviewed by ECA International, an expatriate remuneration consultancy, reported an increase in the practice, with family considerations often uppermost in staff decisions on whether to commute. Ms Harrant chose to do so when offered a UK job because her partner’s career ruled out moving to Britain. Others do so to avoid disrupting their children’s education, to stay close to relatives who help them look after their offspring, or to keep an eye on ageing parents.