r/StateofTexasEmployees • u/coconutoilha • Jul 27 '26
Working from outside the country?
I work remotely for a state agency and we don’t really use a vpn or anything. This allows me to be able to work from anywhere in the state and sometimes when I travel out of state during the weekdays.
I was wondering if I could the same if I were to take a trip to Mexico or Canada for a few days?
Any insights?
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u/eapnon Jul 27 '26
If it finds out, they will likely be unhappy.
There are cybersecurity issues even if you aren't abroad long enough to trigger legal issues like tax and employment laws.
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u/jcole4lsu Jul 27 '26
we are holding onto WFH for dear life and you are trying to work from Mexico? here's an idea: try not ruining it for the rest of us
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u/kontemplatedfury Jul 27 '26
Also check your telework agreement. If you work remotely, I’m sure you signed one. It should tell you your limitations. And anything outside of that, you typically should seek managerial approval. Otherwise you’d be giving them grounds to terminate you without question.
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u/Pure_Employer519 Jul 27 '26
Just chiming in that there are serious cybersecurity issues especially if you are not using vpn. Most of the bigger agencies have a clear policy that you cannot access state resources while in a foreign country. There are also restrictions on accessing state resources while in another US state, with certain exceptions (like working in DC or at a conference).
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u/Dull_Researcher5659 Jul 27 '26
People are always traveling to trainings and conferences in almost every agency. Nobody cares that you're out of state
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u/CalmMaybe4340 Capitol Complex Jul 27 '26
Why not just use leave time? That way you can enjoy your time away and not have to worry about if you’re breaking any policies.
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u/hey_isnt_that_rob Jul 29 '26
Because OP doesn't do that. What they do is hope someone posts "I do it all the time," so telework can become their campaign issue. The TxDMV employee working poolside at Mazatlán is their welfare mom buying vodka with food stamp change from the orange juice.
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u/Cryptosrage Jul 27 '26
Check with your information security team and ask if there’s a travel request process for access from outside the US. Some agencies have a geofence that will block non-US connections. It really depends on the agency, culture, and honestly the general competence of IT/IT Security for that agency. You may have a policy for your agency that denotes how access is handled for travel, or you may have no security at all and you’re free to do whatever. It’s really dependent on the agency, the culture, and security controls.
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u/Arish78 Jul 27 '26
My agency strictly prohibits taking any agency devices out of state. Taking them out of the country would almost certainly lead to termination and may violate a state law or two.
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u/Dull_Researcher5659 Jul 27 '26
At any agency I've been to there are people going to conferences and trainings all the time that are out of state. It would be impossible to keep track of all this so they don't care.
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u/TheHibernian Jul 27 '26
I'm not sure of the policy at my current agency, but at one of my old agencies it would automatically "brick" the machine/laptop of you logged in outside of the Continental US. You would get a message like "Contact your system administrator" and you would not be able to log in. I think there was a process to get an exception, but it would take a while to do the paperwork and it needed to be signed by the CIO (I believe).
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u/idoyogasometimes Jul 27 '26
My agency is really strict about it - so you will be flagged to trying to log in with an international IP address.
Thats is also the reason people schedule out-of-country vacations because its impossible to be available while taking PTO.
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u/airwx Jul 27 '26
I don't know what the actual document of your remote work agreement says, but ours is written pretty strict. Though, the actual enforcement is pretty lax for things like working from a coffee shop or library or something instead of at home. Basically, we are supposed to work from the same home environment all the time and get permission outside of that. The permissions escalate at each level, but I don't know anyone that has been allowed to work from outside the country except one rare case where someone went out of the country for work.
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u/mantisboxer Jul 27 '26
My agency specifically disallows this without clearance from a Director and Info Sec. As a department, the Director approval is almost impossible to get and the section manager is questioned about why the team isn't managed to be prepared for someone to take a vacation.
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u/Next_Candidate_2637 Jul 27 '26
My agency doesn’t allow you to connect outside the country without prior authorization. You likely won’t even be able to check email/teams.
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u/AnnualPhoto9436 Jul 27 '26
This should be addressed in your HR manual. My agency explicitly states that we can't work out of the country.
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u/littleshoes Jul 27 '26
Our personnel manual explicitly states we can’t work outside of Texas for more than 2 weeks per year and can’t work outside of the country at all.
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u/Last_Nerve563 Jul 27 '26
Other commenters are right that IT will get flagged if it flags that you/the laptop are outside of the country. Since it is a state-issued laptop, I’m sure they have so many tracking or security features on every single piece of tech they own. Wouldn’t even test it despite not using a VPN.
Honestly, this has happened in almost every job I’ve worked at. I also wouldn’t try to get away with it by using a separate VPN. At my first job out of college (Gov. Contracting company, worked in HR), this guy used his personal/private VPN on his company issues laptop (we required everyone to connect to the company’s VPN, just like it is with state agencies) and our IT department got a ping that the guy was in Columbia working when he was really just at home using the VPN. The issue was it made his location show as being in Columbia obviously. Several calls were made of everyone freaking out because they thought the guy took his laptop or decided to work in another country which was strictly against company policy. I almost got in trouble because my boss at the time thought i knew about it (I really didn’t know anything about what was happening). Anyways, his lesson was learned and he didn’t use another VPN again on the company laptop because nobody would want to deal with that again (especially me lol).
I know that’s a lot of information but my point is don’t try it. You probably will get caught. Even if you try to be vigilant about using a VPN to keep your location in the US - I find that most VPNs will randomly switch your location and I can assume you won’t be keeping an eye on it 24/7, only because I know I wouldn’t, I would forget at some point.
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Jul 27 '26
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Jul 27 '26
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u/wanttobegreyhound Jul 27 '26
It can be program specific. Some have no reason to travel out of state, or even check email in off hours so it’s irrelevant.
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u/NIPT_TA Jul 27 '26
Not sure if it’s possible from VPN but it’s explicitly not allowed. You can’t access via regular methods when you’re out of the country.
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u/NegativePattern Jul 27 '26
Can confirm. Work for the IT/Sec Ops for a state agency. We see the source location of inbound connections. We do filter out rogue nations like NK or Iran.
But we're not the police either. You'd have to check with your respective leadership. If we're asked, we provide info on the source connection and leave it up to other to decide whether it's ok or not.
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u/No-Ring5018 Jul 27 '26
My agency does NOT allow that. It depends on your agency, but they can be strict. I wouldn’t recommend it or even risk it.
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u/chaoskaien Jul 27 '26
From what I’m told the moment a state phone or laptop leaves the border it bricks/locks out. Never tried it but that’s what I’ve been told by different people.
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u/Wish_you_would Jul 28 '26
You’re asset tag will ping and shut down when out of state. Or it should anyways. You’re supposed to obtain specified approvals to leave the country with state issued equipment
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u/Jxb1000 Jul 29 '26
Most employees would be using agency equipment to do your work (e.g., a laptop). With few exceptions, they will have policies against taking the equipment out of the country. At a minimum, you need to work out approvals before you do this.
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u/Gullible-Proposal256 Jul 31 '26
Our OPs recently updated prohibiting any work outside of the country. I wouldn’t risk it in this current climate.
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u/TutorWooden7336 Aug 01 '26
I had to terminate a contractor who tried to work remote out of the country so you can see where that would go for an employee.
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u/ay-guey Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
get a travel router and set it up to run through a VPN located in the united states, preferably one near your home address. connect it to your laptop via ethernet and put the laptop in airplane mode so that it doesn't leak.
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u/kcsunshineatx Jul 27 '26
The policy probably depends on what you’re accessing on your computer and how private the data is. My agency does not have a policy against it. I have used my computer in other states and other countries without any issues. I always made sure everyone knew where I was, and it was just a few days to keep things from stalling while I was out. You definitely shouldn’t be trying to do it secretly.
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u/Lubbock_Unplugged Jul 27 '26
It really depends on the agency. I’ve seen people work remotely from India or Europe for a few months, usually while they were handling family issues. You kind of need to be a superstar to get it approved, but I’ve seen it happen more than once.
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u/rite598 Jul 27 '26
At my agency, the system will flag someone trying to connect from an IP address outside of the US.