Flourish - Latest Edition - Flipbook - Page 39
Once upon a time, “the
team” meant the people
you could wave to across
the of昀椀ce. Now it might
mean Melbourne, Manila,
Mumbai, London, and
Los Angeles all on the
same project, sharing
the same Slack channel,
and somehow needing
to make decisions before
anyone’s second coffee.
Working across time zones
is a modern superpower.
It can also feel like a never
ending relay race where
the baton is a half written
email, three voice notes,
and a meeting invite
scheduled at an hour that
should be illegal.
The good news is that most
global teams are dealing
with the same puzzle, and
the numbers back it up. In
Buffer’s State of Remote
Work 2023 report, 62
percent of respondents
said they work directly
with teammates across
multiple time zones, and 74
percent said their company
operates in multiple time
zones. Microsoft’s Work
Trend Index research also
found that 30 percent of
meetings span multiple
time zones, and meetings
starting after 8 pm are up
16 percent year on year,
linked to cross time
zone collaboration.
So if you sometimes
feel like you are juggling
calendars for sport, you
are not alone.
Why time zone work
can be brilliant
When it is set up well,
time zone spread can be a
competitive advantage.
You get more hours of
progress. A task can move
from Sydney to Singapore
to Stockholm without
waiting for one local
workday to start.
You can hire the best
person, not the closest
person. The talent pool
is bigger, and often more
diverse in experience
and thinking.
You reduce single point
bottlenecks. If decisions,
documentation, and
ownership are clear, work
does not stall when one
of昀椀ce clocks off.
The catch is that none
of this happens by
accident. Time zone
success is designed.
The most common trap:
treating everyone like
they are in the same room
A lot of time zone pain
comes from one habit:
defaulting to real time
communication.
If every question becomes
a meeting, time zones
turn into a tax on sleep
and wellbeing. Microsoft’s
data is a useful warning
sign here: multi time zone
meetings are common,
and late meetings are
trending up. That is the
“in昀椀nite workday” effect,
where the day stretches at
both ends and nobody is
fully off duty.
The 昀椀x is not more
resilience. It is better
operating rules.
