Time Zone Trickery (part 1) - Defining Working Hours
Delphine Ménard
Global HR & Change Executive | Steward in Organizational Development | INSEAD EMC Graduate
''(Warning, this post contain 24 hour format times, brace yourself.)''
I work for an organization that spans many time zones. We have staff located from New Zealand to the West Coast of the United States, which literally is a whole day away.?
Of course during this pandemic we’ve been thinking a lot about how to do remote work. What are the norms, expectations, rules we should develop so that we take advantage of being a culturally diverse and distributed organization? We think those advantages bring all sorts of cool edges to our work. How do we take advantage of , while at the same time making sure that the quality of the work environment we can offer is good, for everyone.?
Of all the things it takes to develop a quality environment for staff, one is how we go about paying attention to our geographic distribution, and how we go about time zones.?There are many aspects to working in different time zones. I’m starting with a necessary definition for working hours.?
My team spans 4 and a half continents. To give you the measure of this, when ColleagueA wakes up on the US West Coast, it is midnight for ColleagueB in Asia. My ColleagueC based in Africa and I?are actually the lucky ones, because we sit somewhere in the middle, with acceptable time overlap with all the others.?
By acceptable time overlap, I mean that we have a few windows that allow us to speak with our colleagues when both of us are within "working hours".?My mornings are Asia's afternoons, my late afternoons are America's mornings. And Africa and I can have lunch together, all of this within working hours!?
What are “working hours”?
The pandemic has thrown all normalcy out the window, but for the sake of agreeing on something, let’s decide that "working hours” go from 8.00 (that’s morning) to 19.00 (that would be evening). In France for example, this is a standard workday span.?
Considering that we're expected to work about 8 hours a day, some people will start at 8.00 and finish around 17.00, others will start at 10.00 and finish around 19.00, with probably a lot of combinations in between. An hour for lunch somewhere in the middle and you have your 8-hour workday.?
Any time before or after these times I decide to consider ‘’inconvenient times’’. Why? Simply because they often are at odds with how life is sliced for many of us. Anything work-related that happens outside the 8.00 to 19.00 span becomes somewhat-to-terribly inconvenient for anyone leading a conventional life.?
For example:?
Keeping in mind these things is a good idea when you work with people in other geographies than yours. But time zones are tricky, so it's good to know where to begin.
How can I be mindful of time zone trickery? It's simple, just talk to people
I think the underlying rule would be: don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. Would you want to have an important meeting at 21.00 in the middle of your Thursday evening crime series? Or at a time where you’ve been up for more than 15 hours? Probably not. Do you want to be part of a work heavy meeting at 5.00 in the morning? There’s a good chance not. Be mindful, but as I said, time zones are tricky. Don't assume.??
领英推荐
A few weeks back I read this newsletter from Raw Signal Group about the future of remote work, post-pandemic. It’s a great read. One thing really stuck out for me:
"The biggest impediment to the future of work is how easy it is to remember the people close to you, and how easy it is to forget those further away. These are the problems that stem from a lack of care."
--from "Elijah you need to unmute
Actually, the answer to time zone trickery [2] is:?care.
Here is how you can start to care:
In short, talk to people to find a time that works. This will go a long long way.
Being mindful might not be enough, depending on where the balance of power lies, but I’ll tackle that in my next post, where I’ll talk about “inconvenience” and how being really inclusive and mindful means more than talking to people. For now, really, ask people before you move meetings around, or add meetings to their calendar. It does for nice human interactions, too.
____
NOTES
[1] We could write a whole post, or even a whole book on conventional vs unconventional, so I would be grateful if you could bear with me on this, and if we left that conversation aside for this once. I’ll be happy to have it another time.
[2] credit to my friend Tanveer for coining the term "Timezone Trickery" ;-)
Read Part 2 of this blog post at: Time Zones Trickery - Practicing Inconvenience For a More Equitable Workplace.
This post was first published on my blog at Time Zone Trickery Part 1
Consultant, Speaker, and Free Knowledge Advocate. Senior International Project Manager. Former ChairWoman of Wikimedia Foundation.
3 年Great post Delphine. Can't wait for the next one !
Cyber Security Technical Project Manager
3 年Let’s all move to UTC and just post our working hours in that time!
| Non-profit management| Organizational development | Human-centered strategic planning | Community development
3 年This is all I needed to read today! Thanks a lot Delphine! ?
Library and information services. Wikimedian. Education. Service. Equity
3 年Thanks for the great post Delphine Ménard on a hot topic. I’d so buy your book on timezone trickery! It’s a real access and equity dilemma in many organisations.
F?rbundsordf?rande f?r DIK - facket f?r kultur, kommunikation och kreativ sektor.
3 年Very good! I often think about this when people around me talk about how hard it is to have everybody working from home during the pandemic. Sure, it is sometimes tricky, but we are in the same country and in the same time zone. It's not that difficult. Very different time zones, however, that really takes it to a different level. On the other hand, you also get the perk of working with interesting people from all over the world. I always thought that made up for any time zone difficulties. And, as you write, by talking with each other most things work out fine. :-)