All over the place: etiquette for teams across time zones Dropbox Blog

One person will have to regularly get up too early or stay online too late. The best way to be mindful of different time zones is to disregard time entirely and rely on asynchronous communication.

But as we learned in our State of Remote Work Report , more people want to work remotely than ever before. So you may soon see team members working across borders and time zones becoming the norm. Let’s get a closer look at what working across time zones entails and how you can adopt better strategies to accommodate the demands of a globally distributed team.

Calendar features

These moments didn’t require planning, and were crucial to helping us agree and get on the same page about what needed to be done. It’s harder to get to know team members when everyone doesn’t work in the same office, not to mention in the same time zone.

This way team members can digest all the information they need at a time that suits them, without having to worry about falling behind or missing out on crucial work details. Some companies that are already going this route include HubSpot, Zapier, Upwork, Automattic, DuckDuckGo, and GitHub. The best Zoom tips and tricks that you can use to master conference working across time zones call communication. The team Trello boards are where we put weekly and upcoming to‑do’s, as well as quarterly goals . Simply put, it keeps things from slipping through the cracks. Our website is built to provide a faster, more engaging experience. Please update to the latest version of Microsoft Edge or contact your network administrator.

Why do time zones exist?

To beat the time zone conundrum you just need to organize a system where everyone is available at the time of communication. It is possible to even get long periods where such a meeting can be held and where possible you need to capitalize on this available opportunity to hold a longer engagement. Proliferation of virtual teams has also brought the problem of collaboration which is a unique challenge that traditional management cannot resolve. Setting expectations for communication is one of the biggest and most impactful things you can do to reduce frustration for asynchronous communication at every stage of the process. Cultural values have a significant impact on hiring approach, attracting individuals who share similar beliefs and rejecting those who do not.

This is great not only for members who missed a meeting and want to get caught up, but for training new members of the team and preserving institutional knowledge over time. At Superhuman, we add key meeting recordings to Notion, building a bank of team knowledge in a central place. Working remotely across time zones and cultures has changed our team dynamic. We lost some ability to organically align in real-time, but gained the understanding needed to adapt. As a result, now we’re able to plan projects and teams specifically for a local, remote, or hybrid project team setup.

Limited opportunities for employee effort recognition

When you rely on mental math to calculate time differences, you’re likely to make mistakes, miss meetings, and waste time. But scheduling meetings across time zones is still necessary for many people. Here are the tips you need to make it easier — and less error-prone — than ever. If each of your international teams keeps a 9-to-5 schedule in their own time zone, it could be impossible to communicate directly with some of them. Instead, experiment with different shifts to keep the conversation flowing between teams. Options could include one or more days per week on which employees work a half-day in the office, then remotely at night or early in the morning.