It’s easy to think of only the problems that can come about from coworkers trying to collaborate from different locales without having the same start and stop to their workday. But working remotely in a different time zone this asynchronous setup confers some advantages alongside the drawbacks. “Be ready to jump on a call/video-call without having to schedule a time for it,” Ronnqvist Ahmadi advises.

(If you’re a developer yourself and want something similar, he’s made the code available on Github). Certain countries refrain from using a given scheme with its time standard unchanged. For example, Iceland, Russia, Turkey, China, Japan, and India don’t follow such trends. Abi is one of the co-founders of Himalayas where he focuses on product and growth. In his spare time, he runs a YouTube channel, podcast, and blog focused on strategy and management.

How to Use: Time Zone Map

Your colleagues might sometimes forget the time zone difference, so you might need to remind them every now and then. Eventually, you and your counterparts will build a clear, mutual understanding of each other’s availability to set a solid base for future collaborations. “Scheduling meetings and collaboration sessions can be challenging,” Erhard agreed. The managing partner explained that his company’s teams frequently need to collaborate across “adjacent” time zones, as well as internationally with clients in the United States and elsewhere.

working across time zones

This distraction-free concentration pushes your cognitive abilities to their limit and creates new value, improves skills, and is hard to replicate in our world of instant satisfaction. Async communication allows people to process the information on their own time and respond at their own convenience, reducing the number of interruptions people receive. An enormous amount of effort is needed to overcome this particular downside of global remote work.

Leverage tools to help with time zone management

Here are a few favorites of the teams that have been successfully working across time zones for a while. The key to successfully working across multiple time zones is good communication and setting clear expectations is the first step. Once companies open the options for flexible work locations, it’s important to set clear expectations.

Some companies have introduced a 4 days a week policy in their effort to take off the pressure that comes from working across time zones as compensation. This in many cases has improved productivity in more companies that have employees that work in different time zones. When teams are working across timezones, real-time communication via IM (instant messaging) and meetings can be challenging.

Remote Work Has Become More Common During the Pandemic

Using these tools to keep time zones top of mind makes sure that all team members have an equal opportunity to work smarter, not harder, and that they can engage or disengage when they want. Use this article as your guide to overcome these challenges and you’ll be well on your way to building strong relationships across time zones. When you are looking for employees or business partners, it can https://remotemode.net/ be tough to find the right person in an industry where ‘who you know’ is just as important as what you know. By hiring remote workers, you’ll never have to worry about geographical limitations again. There’s no need to wait for a conference call or meeting to start talking when you work together from the same office. But when working with a distributed team, communicating takes more effort.

Even between the east and west coast of the United States, there is a three-hour time difference. Hosting an 8 AM meeting in New York City, which seems completely appropriate to start your day, would mean someone in Los Angeles needing to be up and ready to go by 5 AM. Even with a smaller difference, the morning and late afternoon meetings can be really challenging for some, especially if they are managing a family and multiple schedules. Consider meeting times that fall in the middle of the day so they fall within everyone’s normal work hours. Different time zone implies different cultures, diverse skill sets, and more importantly a wide generation of fresh new perspectives from across the globe. If the companies that ventured into this kind of setup are able to embrace it and use it to their advantage, growth is, therefore, a possibility.