They ask for a few hours so you can have meetings with your colleagues. They want to be sure that there is enough possibility to communicate properly. Many remote companies try to make the communications as asynchronous as possible. Sometimes it is too complicated to explain or too sensitive to do it over email. Some remote companies have completely flexible hours as long as you can adequately communicate with your colleagues and get the job done. By following the six tips we shared in this article, you will have the tools to navigate the complexities of time zones and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

  • Every employee is also assigned a random “pair partner” each week— that means we’ll jump on a call with one of our colleagues just see how things are going, and perhaps work together on a cross-team project.
  • In this article we’ve put together some simple timesheet templates to make creating one easier for you.
  • A new report rated 108 countries based on societal and infrastructure factors and found that Europe was by far the best place to remote work in 2023.
  • There are companies that expect their employees or freelancers to be available for only two or four overlapping hours instead of eight.
  • 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.

Planning meetings across time zones might sound so painful that you’d rather just never have meetings—but don’t do that either. It might not be possible—or even desirable—for each team member to take ownership of part of your company’s work, but you can break projects up in a way that everyone has their own specific area to focus on. This strategy makes your projects asynchronous, which remote developer Mutahhir Ali Hayat suggests is the best way to make remote development work out.

Benefits of working across time zones

Despite the widely accepted benefits of distributed teams, managing professionals in different time zones can be quite tricky… The best job for you might not be in your hometown, and you might work better when you aren’t shackled to a 9-to-5 workday. And that’s ok on a distributed team, as long as you can manage the time shift. Your team will likely get more done, and you’ll be able to provide better support for your customers—but you’ll also need to figure out how to make the world feel a bit smaller. According to the geography realm website, there are more than 24 time zones in the world.

Meetings, and other forms of synchronous communication, have their place. The only way it can work is if you keep team meetings to a minimum, record them for those that can’t attend, and make attendance optional. If you really do need to have everyone there, try to pick a time that works for most people and then ask the remaining few if they can attend. Then the next time you organize a meeting, share the burden and make it easy for them and harder for everyone else. This is probably the most obvious challenge of working across multiple time zones, and rightfully so. It can get overwhelming trying to set up a time that works for the entire team.

Use async communication as much as possible

In this article we’ll compare and contrast commercial time tracking software with its open source counterpart. Also, you may find it challenging to decline meetings scheduled outside your normal working hours—or to provide other dates for meetings planned outside your working hours. Valuing the sacrifices made by other workers creates an efficient and healthy work environment. Trivial mistakes make you look awful in front working remotely in a different time zone of your team member while working locally, but the same mistakes cause a 2-day delay when working overseas. It also indicates that you can collaborate with other team members wherever you are, as it does not matter what time zone they happen to be in. Tools like the World Clock Meeting Planner help you plug in all the locations of your distributed team to see where you have overlap (areas in green across all locations).