Managing Spanish teams

It is for people considering, planning or carrying out a move to Spain who will manage Spanish staff. The aim is that you start leading your team with trust and without avoidable mistakes.

Start with "Starting as a manager of a Spanish team". It covers the first weeks, when trust is easiest to earn and hardest to win back. From there, move on to the other pages as your situation needs them.

Hiring, employer duties, dismissal procedure and remote work arrangements are not covered here.

Key rules

• Overtime limit: Overtime is voluntary unless a collective agreement or individual contract provides for it, and it cannot exceed 80 hours per year.
• Overtime time off: Overtime is paid at no less than the ordinary hourly rate, or compensated with paid rest taken within four months unless an agreement says otherwise.
• Formal discipline: Any formal sanction must be notified in writing and state the facts, so involve HR or an employment lawyer before a formal warning.
• Right to disconnect: Employees have no obligation to answer emails, calls or messages during rest periods, holidays or leave, and cannot be penalised for disconnecting.
• Relationships first: Personal contact and approachability build trust before your formal credentials do.
• Pace of change: Spend your first one to three months listening, and change nothing big until you understand why things work as they do.

Managing Spanish teams: the whole process, step by step

• Listen and learn before changing anything (Starting as a manager of a Spanish team): During your first one to three months

• Consult the team, explain your reasons and phase in changes; changes to hours, pay, location or shifts need a formal procedure and consultation with worker representatives where they exist (Starting as a manager of a Spanish team): After the listening period, before any change

• Set the goal, deadline and expected result, and agree milestones and how progress will be reported (Delegating, motivating and setting expectations): When you hand over the work, face to face or by call, then confirm in writing

• Check in briefly and informally at the agreed milestones (Delegating, motivating and setting expectations): At each agreed milestone

• Raise performance problems in a private, informal conversation (Handling underperformance and difficult conversations): As soon as a problem shows, and document the conversation

• Involve HR or an employment lawyer before any formal warning or sanction (Handling underperformance and difficult conversations): If the problem is deliberate, sustained and provable, before any written warning

• Build a shared calendar per work location and per remote employee, and plan deadlines around local holidays and long weekends (Managing mixed, multicultural and multi-office teams): At the start of each year, once the labour calendars are published

• Agree the team language and working-hours habits, and plan workarounds if you lack fluent Spanish (Leading a team without fluent Spanish): Early on, alongside your first weeks

Documents you may need

• A brief confirming email to the employee after the conversation — Handling underperformance and difficult conversations

• A short factual note of each performance conversation — Handling underperformance and difficult conversations

Managing Spanish teams: questions that cross several articles

Can I message my Spanish team after hours?

You can send occasional urgent messages, but staff have a legal right to disconnect and need not answer during rest periods, holidays or leave. If you need extra effort, ask rather than order, explain why, give notice and offer time off in return. Read Delegating, motivating and setting expectations for how to ask.

Can I make my Spanish team work overtime?

Only if their collective agreement or contract provides for it, because overtime is otherwise voluntary and capped at 80 hours per year. It must be paid or compensated with time off and recorded daily. Read Delegating, motivating and setting expectations, and check the details with HR.

When does underperformance become a formal disciplinary matter?

It becomes formal when the poor performance is deliberate, sustained and provable, and a private conversation has not fixed it. Any sanction must be notified in writing, so involve HR or an employment lawyer first. Read Handling underperformance and difficult conversations.

Do English-speaking hubs in Madrid and Barcelona work differently?

Yes, international hubs there usually work in English for meetings and documents, while Spanish stays common in social chat and with local clients. Contracts still follow Spanish law, so the rules on hours and discipline still apply. Read Leading a team without fluent Spanish and Managing mixed, multicultural and multi-office teams.