Life in Luxembourg during COVID-19

By: Gijs Voppen & Antoin Feij

Dear readers,

Trust you are all doing well. As a short introduction, for those who do not know us, we both graduated in August ‘19 from the International Tax LLM in Maastricht and shortly after we both signed our first contract with EY Luxembourg where we started as of September ‘19. In the end, we turned out to be the only 2 Dutch guys from our LLM who went to Luxembourg, in search for an interesting international environment to work in. Hereinafter, we will share with you our personal Covid-19 experience from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. [Gijs]: Actually, on the eve before the day that corona measures were imposed in Luxembourg, we were having some drinks and dinner at Bazaar next to Place Guillaume (recommended). At the evening itself we were unaware that this would be our last dinner out, which is kind of a weekly recurring activity after work in Luxembourg. The day after the luxembourg government decided to close down all types of social gatherings, including pubs, restaurants etc. From the same moment onwards, many companies providing financial services decided that their employees should work from home for the benefits of the employees’ health and to avoid any further spread of the virus. This was also the moment when we started working from our homes, in Luxembourg often quite small living spaces as prices on the real estate market are extremely high compared to Maastricht.

[Antoin]: As a result of the measures imposed, we were advised not to go to the office for several months which most people adhered to. For me personally, business went on as usual as there was quite a lot of work in my team, focusing on Private Equity, so I was busy working from my apartment pretty much all the time. Every morning we had a team call in order to follow the recent tax and covid-19 developments and discuss the workload for that day, which gave some structure to the working from home (unfortunately not sleeping in every day during quarantine). Funnily the weather during quarantine in Luxembourg was amazing all the time, so as soon as measures relaxed a bit we met up in the park a couple of times (per week) for some beers at a safe 2 meters distance. When working from home all the time in a small apartment, these moments of relaxation were very welcome and are good to unwind from the daily routine. [Gijs]: On the contrary, the workload in my team, with a focus on multinational companies, declined rather quickly and therefore starting from the 1st of April, most people of my team, including me, were told to work only part-time as long as the slowdown would take. Luckily our team was again working full time from the 1st of May, as many big projects started to take off in the month of May in my team. It was up to every colleague to work from the office or from home, and in order to keep in touch with the team and to manage the workload we had a call 3 times per week during the morning. In order to keep myself disciplined, I worked at least 3 days per week from the office. During those days at the office, the atmosphere was still quite relaxed but only few colleagues were in the office. Apart from work, I tried to stay in shape physically and mentally by going for a run at least 3 times per week. Especially when working from home, I felt the need to go for a run in order to avoid a passive lifestyle all day long. [Antoin]: Similarly, I really needed some exercise during the quarantine period as the gym’s closed which is generally my favorite way to stay in shape. However as gyms were closed during this period, I even started running in order to not have such a passive lifestyle (normally I do not like running that much), did push-ups and sometimes went for a bike ride as a true Dutchman. As the lockdown slowly came to an end in Luxembourg, bars and restaurants reopened (outdoor terraces first after the indoor venues) and normal life seemed to be lived again, kind of. Coincidentally, Gijs and I went for some drinks to the same bar immediately after the lockdown, which made us realize that we had been there about three months before for the last pre-quarantine dinner, and cheered to our freedom. In terms of working life at the moment, we are able to go to the office whenever we want, as long as we feel comfortable doing so, taking into account that not too many colleagues are in the office (due to social distancing measures). Many colleagues are slowly going more and more to the office, including me as I prefer working from the office, but let’s see how this develops in the upcoming months. [Gijs]: In my team, it is very busy again, just like prior to the lockdown. Even though all the work seems to be back to normal the social activities in the company, like the Friday drinks, have all been suspended for the time being. However, the most important thing is that we can again live our lives again in a semi-normal way and these social events will hopefully follow soon.

Despite the circumstances surrounding covid-19, the past year has been one full of developments and steep learning curves, while being part of a very inclusive environment with people from all nationalities. All of us felt very welcomed by the international tax community in Luxembourg and really enjoy working in such easy-going atmosphere, while many more great things are yet to come!

Feel free to reach out to us in case you have any doubts or would like to ask any questions: gijs.voppen@ lu.ey.com / antoin.feij@lu.ey.com . For those who will start with EY Luxembourg in September, see you soon and talk to you later!

Gijs & Antoin