3 ms·

Time zones matter... I work with people around the world, and it is way easier to work with someone 2 or 3 hours off than with someone 10 hours apart.

omosubi 6y ago
This is true but management practices already exist for this to happen already pretty effectively.
jariel 6y ago
So if that's a problem then ... ... you cost X, but your peer, 10 time zones away costs 1/2 X. ... so who is at risk of getting 'eliminated and/or moved'? Because if the '1/2 cost' team can do the job, it won't be them. It's very basic math. Again, it won't be everything, but many things.
- geodel 6y ago
  Agreed. I think it is kind of fractal. Even in low cost locations in Asia and all work is moving down further lower cost cities in same time zones. I can see happening in India where 90's and 00's an IT job was sure shot way to earn upper middle class life. Now a large number of them who entered 10-15 years back are looking at mid career layoffs and next job will be most likely downgrade. Another large chunk of employees are going to be pushed toward contract jobs instead of full time as companies target for 100% utilization of staff.
PeterisP 6y ago
Sure, it is easier, and the management may well be willing to pay some premium for that. The question is, how large is a reasonable premium for it? 10%? 30%? Certainly not paying three times the amount.
- vikramkr 6y ago
  3 times the amount may be worth it for things where synchronous work matters
  - geodel 6y ago
    Yes, but that work is becoming rare. As the workflows, tools advance further ,it will be easier to do offline analysis which otherwise need meetings.
alextheparrot 6y ago
Depending on the salary, people might be willing to work second or third shift type of roles. Time zones only matter insofar as people are unwilling to work to the employer’s schedule
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  It definitely depends. For most of the tech stuff people do, the kind of people you want to get are going to be unwilling to have a job that requires them to have no social life where they live. If you want to make distributed work, then you need to be OK with asynchronicity rather than demanding synchronous work. And to be fair, because of tax and timezones, it's more likely that this stuff will be sent to Europe rather than SE Asia, and you definitely won't get long-term people to work 1pm to 9pm to overlap with the US West coast.

omosubi 6y ago

This is true but management practices already exist for this to happen already pretty effectively.

jariel 6y ago

So if that's a problem then ... ... you cost X, but your peer, 10 time zones away costs 1/2 X. ... so who is at risk of getting 'eliminated and/or moved'? Because if the '1/2 cost' team can do the job, it won't be them. It's very basic math. Again, it won't be everything, but many things.

geodel 6y ago
Agreed. I think it is kind of fractal. Even in low cost locations in Asia and all work is moving down further lower cost cities in same time zones. I can see happening in India where 90's and 00's an IT job was sure shot way to earn upper middle class life. Now a large number of them who entered 10-15 years back are looking at mid career layoffs and next job will be most likely downgrade. Another large chunk of employees are going to be pushed toward contract jobs instead of full time as companies target for 100% utilization of staff.

PeterisP 6y ago

Sure, it is easier, and the management may well be willing to pay some premium for that. The question is, how large is a reasonable premium for it? 10%? 30%? Certainly not paying three times the amount.

vikramkr 6y ago
3 times the amount may be worth it for things where synchronous work matters
- geodel 6y ago
  Yes, but that work is becoming rare. As the workflows, tools advance further ,it will be easier to do offline analysis which otherwise need meetings.

alextheparrot 6y ago

Depending on the salary, people might be willing to work second or third shift type of roles. Time zones only matter insofar as people are unwilling to work to the employer’s schedule

disgruntledphd2 6y ago
It definitely depends. For most of the tech stuff people do, the kind of people you want to get are going to be unwilling to have a job that requires them to have no social life where they live. If you want to make distributed work, then you need to be OK with asynchronicity rather than demanding synchronous work. And to be fair, because of tax and timezones, it's more likely that this stuff will be sent to Europe rather than SE Asia, and you definitely won't get long-term people to work 1pm to 9pm to overlap with the US West coast.