Distributed Team Tip Time Zones

Posted by Matthew on August 4, 2017

Respect team members time zones

Most remote teams by nature are widely geographically located. This means that they are likely spread across many time zones. It’s important that when messages are sent, calls are made, or meetings are scheduled that everyone considers the time of day for the other team members.

Core Hours

I believe it’s important to have a set of core hours that every team member is available regardless of time zone. This means there is a chunk of time during each person’s day that that they know they can call, message, or schedule a meeting without having to think about time zones.

Exceptions

As always there are exceptions to the rule. Sometimes it is necessary to have a meeting late in the evening for a team member. This does not mean that it should become the norm, it should be a rare occurrence. Each member of the team should be willing to be flexible from time to time.

Come in early too

What I commonly see is that team members are often never willing to come in early. For example, members on the west coast often expect east coast members to meet late. But conversely those same members would scoff at being asked to “come into the office” at 6 am for a call. Being flexible means being willing to stay late or come in early.