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By taking care of yourself, you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges of working remotely through various time zones and enjoy traveling the world. Also, show empathy and understanding towards your team members or remote employees, as they may be making similar sacrifices to accommodate your needs. Maintaining open lines of communication and a positive attitude can go a long way in building strong relationships with your colleagues. Adjusting your work hours or finding a compromise that works for everyone involved may be necessary to navigate scheduling conflicts. This might mean starting work earlier or later in the day or being flexible with deadlines and project timelines. It’s also important to keep an open mind and be willing to adapt to ensure a successful team collaboration.
When everyone lives in different time zones, writing, planning, and documentation tend to become the default behavior for remote employees. This means people who were offline can dive into documentation to catch up, rather than having to wait for answers. When you don’t need to consider time zones, you can attract and hire the best talent regardless of location.
OUR BEST TIPS FOR KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR GLOBAL TEAM’S SCHEDULE
While operating with time zone differences has its benefits, it’s also challenging. Particularly if you don’t introduce new processes to manage a truly global team. Most managers frequently mix micromanagement with necessary follow-ups. Because supervisors cannot see remote workers, they cannot contact them every hour or so for updates. Too much messaging or calling your team members can cause unnecessary stress, inhibit productivity, and eventually lead to a hostile work atmosphere. Managers should instead give their workers some leeway when it comes to setting work schedules or deadlines, as long as they deliver high-quality results.
Having an official time zone means everyone will set and communicate deadlines and meetings using the same time zone, regardless of their location. By doing this, employees can quickly determine the time difference between their location and their office. With a split schedule, you can be more available https://remotemode.net/ for meetings with colleagues in different time zones without ignoring your local team. Furthermore, you will be able to stay in touch with your international department without staying up all night. For one, organizations should consider setting and respecting their team’s time zone boundaries.
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To overcome this substantial obstacle, it’s important to utilize technology to its fullest potential. This might mean using instant messaging platforms like Slack or Skype to stay in touch throughout the day or scheduling regular check-ins to ensure that everyone is on the same page. It’s also important to be proactive in your communication, asking questions and seeking clarification when necessary.
One thing that I tried out in order to help with the time zone conundrum of a time zone converter was the Google Calendar second time zone option. Like I mentioned above, you want to avoid sending someone a meeting invite and having it pop up for them on a Saturday, or on a national holiday in the country where they live. I had transitioned from working full-time to freelancing when Dan and I set off for our remote work trip around the https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ world to explore how we could use travel to build this website together. This is when you have to speak up and make sure your schedule is “seen” by everyone involved. If your team or freelance client is planning a meeting and proposes a time, make sure to express your opinion on the timing for the meeting. A common assumption is that someone’s hours are a ‘standard’ 9-5 or 9-6 pm; however, location is not always equal to working hours.
Pro: It’s easier to value output over time-in-seat
Research from McKinsey found that ethnically and racially diverse companies outperform their less diverse peers by 36% when it comes to financial metrics. In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits and challenges of working across time zones, as well as the best practices you need to follow. It becomes easier to manage when course correction is required, and when team members go above and above to reinforce the culture, exemplifying those acts to the rest of the team becomes easier than ever.
- Or, if you attempt to message everyone in a group, Slack can let you know it’s late for some people before you hit send.
- Odds are, a great teammate will get back to you when they begin working the next day.
- Mention your schedule and preferred communication channels while introducing yourself so that your coworkers know how to reach you.
All the individual nuances that come from someone speaking rather than emailing. In any given team, there can be multiple cultural backgrounds and perspectives—which could mean that phrases that feel common to you aren’t so common for everyone else and vice-versa. It’s not fair to expect that a phrase like midday means the same for everyone. That kind of thinking also led O’Brian to consider her written communication more carefully.
Without the need for overtime or late-night shifts, teams can collaborate to fulfill deadlines. Employees in the one-time zone can hand over half-finished projects to peers in another time zone to finish. But the design team at Help Scout is spread out across five time zones, making creative collaboration a challenge. Here are some ways they stay connected remotely, as explained by Buzz Usborne, a product designer on the team. Whether you’ve built an asynchronous culture or not, the nature of working across time zones necessitates it to a degree. Another side effect of a multi-time zone team is increased autonomy.
