5 Etiquette Rules for Working Across Time Zones

It’s acceptable to inquire as long as you first confirm the other person’s wishes. If you’re having trouble attending numerous meetings in various timezones, you should still raise the issue after having the initial talk. There’s a lack of social and human interaction during working hours which can be needed for anyone to boost their productive working mood as no man is an island.

• Plus, you can add the correct time to your calendar in just a click, if you’d like.
• This allows colleagues across time zones to manage their schedules, knowing that they won’t be wasting time on a casual chat that could have been spent working productively or catching up on sleep.
• Enforcing and executing assigned tasks where there isn’t proper effective communication can be a daunting experience.
• Make a habit of using military time and specifying time zones when scheduling meetings.
• No matter where your whole team is located and what time zone or geography separates you, effective async communication allows you to stay connected effectively.

By setting a clear expectation that communication won’t happen in real-time, you can take the pressure of people in different time zones to be “on-call”. Using project management tools can help offer higher team accountability and enable a smooth flow of information to the extent that the time zone and physical differences become irrelevant. Using Outlook or Google calendar to schedule meetings will typically automatically adjust the meeting time for each participant. Try Every Time Zone to super quickly see what time it is where all your coworkers are located. Having tools in place will take the guesswork out of figuring out someone’s time zone, and can help you avoid reaching out to someone when they’re already off the clock or out for lunch. Remote workers and companies experience lots of benefits—cost savings, less distractions, and increased productivity, to name a few.

How do you communicate across different time zones?

Asynchronous communication (“async”) is when information is sent at separate times with a delay in between. For example, writing an email, sending a Loom video, or leaving a voice message https://remotemode.net/ for someone so they can respond to it whenever works best with their schedule (and yours). If so, then you know the challenges in staying on the same page that come with working remotely.

Switching up the times of your meetings will help to ensure everyone in your team feels equally valued. Daylight saving time was implemented in the United States to address train transportation coordination concerns in 1918. Hawaii and most of Arizona (excluding the Navajo Nation) remain on standard time while the rest of the country makes the shift. It means that for much of the year, the time difference between New York and Phoenix is three hours — but from November to March, Phoenix residents are just two hours behind. The next time you’ll need to change your clocks is in the spring, with the return of daylight saving time March 10. If you’re awake very early Sunday, you’ll see the clocks change from 2 a.m.

Pro: It’s easier to value output over time-in-seat

Using a single, multifunctional tool such as Pumble, to streamline diverse conversations and collaborative projects across time zones can increase overall productivity by 30%. Teams operating across time zones require a unique set of functionalities specifically customized to meet the needs of the asynchronous workforce. When assessing team chat and collaboration apps for your distributed team, look for features that allow flexibility, autonomy, seamless collaboration, https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ and transparent availability status options. To successfully utilize key principles of asynchronous communication to their advantage, distributed teams need to prioritize efficient, written communication. When working on a report, for example, globally distributed teammates won’t necessarily have the opportunity to ping a coworker and get the missing info right away. This is why it’s paramount to keep detailed written records of all the processes and projects.

• Timezone messages like the one above can help you be mindful of what to send when to send it, and if your message is urgent enough to send as soon as possible.
• This strategy makes your projects asynchronous, which remote developer Mutahhir Ali Hayat suggests is the best way to make remote development work out.
• It means that for much of the year, the time difference between New York and Phoenix is three hours — but from November to March, Phoenix residents are just two hours behind.
• Meanwhile, if you’re not working in the same country as your broader team, “don’t be afraid to ask for meetings that are outside of others’ timezones.”
• While most of Europe and the U.S. practice daylight saving time, some policymakers in the European Commission and in the U.S.
• Do you want to improve your message writing skills when your team is working remotely?

“When it comes to online publishing, being in different places isn’t so strange,” says Russell. Aside from the few weeks every year when we’re all together at our company retreats, there’s always someone at Zapier awake and working. Time zone coverage is just something that’s automatically possible with distributed teams.

Tips for Working with Teammates in Different timezones

Be sure that your entire team is able to find times that work for all of them. Make sure you don’t let your dispersed team members hop on a call at 7 am just because it’s convenient for you. A common drawback to managing a team that operates across time zones is the lack of space for sharing insight about work progress. The already limited communication opportunities leave no room for staff to share what they’re working on, talk about ideas, or future plans. This can leave employees feeling their work is being overlooked, and potentially affect their career advancement as it doesn’t allow enough insight into their effort and contribution.

The U.S., for its part, has nine time zones, with six of them covering the 50 states and the remaining three applying to territories. France, for example, is often cited as the country with the most time zones – 12 or 13, depending on the time of year. But everyone living in metropolitan France – the part of France located in Europe – resides within a single time zone. While most of Europe and the U.S. practice daylight saving time, some policymakers in the European Commission and in the U.S. About half of all countries in the world observed daylight saving time in the past but no longer do so.