And, as the pandemic is dying out, and companies are issuing the return-to-the-office memos, it’s pretty much business as usual for teams working across time zones. These benefits aren’t going away with the pandemic for teams operating in international virtual offices. We often assume when we’re talking to someone new that they’re in the same time zone as us. When scheduling a meeting or call with remote team members, make sure to ask them what time zone they are in so that you can account for any time difference with their local time when you schedule. Working with a distributed team can be challenging at first because it’s difficult to build the kind of rapport that comes naturally when working in an office setting.

The logistics of working out the perfect meeting schedule that aligns with your team’s work hours can often be outright impossible. Cloud-based technology allowed a number of industries to adopt some form of remote work model. Naturally, organizations jumped at the opportunity to select from a global pool of talent which is, essentially, the key factor that led to the formation of teams that span across different time zones. Still, as much as it might be pretty seamless for a tech company to adjust their operations to working across time zones, for some industries and teams, this practice is simply not viable. Let’s get a more detailed look at what types of teams are leading the way in working across time zones. When we meet someone new, we frequently think they are in the same time zone as ourselves.

Determine everyone’s preferred work hours and time zone

One of the first mistakes you may make when working remotely from home is to allow all of your favorite (or least favorite) items in the house to distract you. Hence, you should try to separate the place where you work from a relatively quiet place in your home. It’s tempting to believe that sending someone a fast email will save them time, while in reality, it may end up wasting more of their day. Pick up the phone and talk it out if you need something done quickly or want your coworker to make a choice right away. Messages are clear and easy to grasp at a glance with just one simple emoji. These are also useful when your teammates don’t all speak the same language.

One of these complexities in working with time-related data is the effect of time zone on the data. Between different time zones, dentist appointments, and vacations, people within your team will need to play catch up using your instant messaging platform every day, making it an important tool to use wisely. Don’t forget that just because meetings are in a different time zone doesn’t mean your distributed employees shouldn’t get the same perks as employees in HQ. If you’re catering lunch for a lunch and learn in the office, consider sending distributed employees gift cards or letting them expense whatever mealtime it is in their time zone during that meeting.

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Mountain Standard Time (MST) spans Utah’s Rocky Mountains all the way over to Arizona, and Pacific Standard Time (PST) includes California and Nevada to Washington State. When you are looking for employees or business partners, it can 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 is a false perception that remote workers are lazy, taking every opportunity to slack off because nobody is watching.

It’s not easy to admit, but time zone discrepancies will affect work repartition and scheduling. However, ideally, this influence will stay minimal, working remotely in a different time zone thanks to defined processes and organization. Setting some clear ground rules might chafe at first, but will act as a safeguard over time.

Track your time and productivity

Working across time zones brings unique challenges rarely encountered within the more traditional work models. As the rewards largely outweigh the drawbacks, it’s worth exploring the best team practices provided above to make working across time zones work. They will help you craft your perfect blend of flexibility, asynchronous work, and inclusive mindset to push your distributed team towards perpetual success.

I’ll bet most of you cannot remember learning to tie your shoelaces or brushing your teeth. And for a majority of us, these actions have become unremarkable parts of our daily routines. I’m sure most of us kept at it (or at least, your parents made you keep at it) until it developed into something we could do without thinking twice. Personally, I do not do it for every single line change, but when I go through the list of files, I try to pre-empt questions that my teammates might have for parts that are not straightforward.

Probably one of the most talked-about challenges of working in different time zones is the effort it takes to schedule meetings. It can get overwhelming trying to set up a time that works for everyone. If teams don’t experience any overlap in work hours, there’s bound to be some time wasted as one team is waiting for the instructions or the input from another one, working at a later time. And, as team communication is directly correlated to productive collaboration, it can lead to unnecessary delays, missed messages, and an overall drop in productivity.

• That way, the key decision points can go under each agenda item in an easy-to-follow manner.
• For a team with some remote members, it can be difficult to accommodate people who aren’t in-house.
• You should take care of your physical and mental health, and find ways to relax and recharge.
• You also need to be prepared for unexpected changes, delays, and challenges that might arise due to the time differences.
• Make sure to always assess each document, guide, or message for clarity.

A complete remote organisation cannot rely on many of these shared experiences and physical venues to help create our culture as a totally distributed organisation. It is necessary to create a culture that prioritises your values and requires every team member to understand and uphold them. A remote team’s culture is conveyed in what you think (your values) and demonstrated in how you behave every day (your actions). As a hardworking employee located farther away from your company’s office, you might find feel pressure to say yes to every meeting you’re invited to. Additionally, you might also find it hard to say no to meetings — or suggest other times — for meetings scheduled outside of your regular working hours.

“Alternatively, you can also block the time at the end of the day with a private reminder that says, “Go home now, you’ve been here since 6 am,” Kelly adds. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that sending someone a quick email will save them time, when it may actually end up wasting more of their day. If you need something done urgently or want your co-worker to make a decision ASAP, pick up the phone and talk it out. When you’re working in a distributed fashion, learning to be an effective async communicator is going to be the biggest factor in your success.

• Similarly, the rest of the team should be comfortable working autonomously with minimum instruction and interference to ensure maximum productivity.
• Plus, you can add the correct time to your calendar in just a click, if you’d like.
• The tool shown above is one that our awesome developer Dan made just for Buffer, and it helps us all a ton to know what’s going on with any teammate at a glance.
• “If you’re clear about why you can’t work every hour of the day across all timezones, teammates will understand that. Just make sure you propose alternatives,” says Nataly Kelly, HubSpot’s VP of Localization.
• Information on time zone scenarios is based on work by Norbert Lindenberg.
• The social disconnect can breed various productivity and personal obstacles that could wreak havoc on your organization over time.

These are the kinds of things that it’s just good to keep in mind with your teammates. Teams working remotely and across time zones lack the spontaneous chats in-office coworkers are accustomed to. The social disconnect can breed various productivity and personal obstacles that could wreak havoc on your organization over time. Another key feature of such team chat apps is the pin option as it helps keep the important documents top of mind and easily accessible. Asynchronous communication should be the norm for remote teams, especially those with personnel in multiple time zones.