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 working remotely in a different time zone fall within everyone’s normal work hours. Let’s explore the tools that enable teams to navigate time zones effortlessly. From world clocks and time zone converters to calendar integration for seamless adjustments, these tools facilitate seamless adjustments and enhance remote collaboration. It’s no surprise that an employee’s work environment and office setup will have a dramatic effect on their output.

This will only get more difficult over time if you aren’t willing to make some changes to attract and retain millennial employees. People are looking for employers with a strong and healthy company culture and a leadership effort to combat burnout and value work-life balance for the entire team. In the digital realm of remote work, collaboration, and communication platforms serve as the lifeblood of effective teamwork across time zones. Encourage employees to block off the times outside of their working hours on their calendars.

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Alternatively, Kelly says you could also consider picking a few days per week where you’ll work on another international team’s schedule entirely. For example, if a Boston-based marketing manager gives a California-based blogger a deadline for “9 a.m. Monday,” it might be hard to determine whether the deadline was for 9 a.m. “There’s a give and take. So long as you check with the person on their preferences, https://remotemode.net/ it’s fine to ask. Some might even prefer to work a non-standard shift anyway,” Kelly explains. If you’re based in your office headquarters, Kelly says you should “remember that your counterparts in most international offices are accustomed to working odd shifts all the time.” Start by culling synchronous communication like daily stand-ups and instead move toward written status updates.

  • Following the above tips and practices will help you develop a schedule and a working model that will keep everybody happy and included while valuing the personal needs of each team member.
  • In this blog, I will talk about a few ways in which you can manage communications with colleagues in different parts of the world, making working across multiple time zones easier.
  • Of course, differences in locations and backgrounds can also add another layer to the misunderstanding and distrust.
  • Ultimately, most important things to embrace and keep in mind when working with team members in different timezones are respect, empathy, and inclusion.
  • For asynchronous collaboration to work, teams need clear processes and guidelines on hand at all times to get a clear direction and understanding of priorities, boundaries, and goals.
  • Attempts to reinvent time zones to make them easier for everyone have failed, we just can’t come to a universal agreement.

Also, you can set definite deadlines for every task so everybody knows the timeframe within which they must finish their part. Such tools let you work on the same documents, share tasks, communicate more efficiently, and help resolve concerns easily. Use this guide to make you convey your message clearly with remote communication. Eastern Standard Time (EST) covers the states in the eastern part of North America and runs from Maine to Florida, while Central Standard Time (CST) includes Texas up to Montana.

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Still, there is often a lack of a fair overlap to organize your meetings around. Cloud computing enabled various businesses to embrace some type of remote work paradigm. Naturally, corporations leaped at the chance to choose from a worldwide pool of talent, which is essentially the driving cause behind the establishment of teams that span many time zones.

That way, the time zone for each recipient get’s adjusted automatically according to their time zone. However, if you specifically mention the time zone in your email, you can use GMT or UTC to mention the time. We use a variety of tools at Buffer, many of which we’ve blogged about before. For synchronous, everyone-at-the-same-time communication, we use Slack for written chats and Zoom for video chats.

How can Teams Manage Working Across Time Zones Most Effectively?

One small silver lining, though, has been the newfound freedom that freshly remote workers have discovered as a result. This question originally appeared on Quora – the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. All of these different approaches add up to increasing our team’s empathy for one another. This compassion fuels trust, engagement, and collaboration – and drives our business forward. That smartphone in your pocket is good for so much more than Candy Crush, selfies, and Instagram.

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