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The most important thing is the whole team being in the same time zone. Even a 1 hour difference is too much. That may seem extreme, but I've had so many impo

The most important thing is the whole team being in the same time zone. Even a 1 hour difference is too much. That may seem extreme, but I've had so many important discussions happen around 5pm near end of day when everyone's done with their main task and meetings and have time to think about something else. Then they realize it's really important and need to chat right now. If the team is not in the same time zone, this kind of communication simply can't happen. Asynchronous communication can only do so much. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone with a screenshare. Even during the day, different time zones means the lunch hour is mismatched which also affects communication and meetings. And it doesn't matter if those in the negatively impacted time zone say they're ok with super early mornings or late hours. No one wants to be the jerk who is making someone get up early or stay late. The time zone difference has a chilling effect in addition to adding friction. You can still hire in other time zones, but each time zone team must be an independent unit. So you can have a team that has members in Vancouver, Bay Area, and Los Angeles. And another team in New York, DC, and Atlanta. But these teams should rarely need to communicate and work with each other.

anonytrary 5y ago
Displeased to see the best comment at the bottom. This is spot on. People will always get the most work done when synchronicity is able to be maximized!
- bit_logic 5y ago
  I’m a bit surprised at the downvoting and wondering if there’s misunderstanding. To be clear, I’ve been working remote for years and fully support it. Physical location doesn’t matter. A team could have someone in a Bay Area house, someone in Bakersfield with farming as a side project, another living in a Tahoe cabin with Starlink and hiking everyday, another in Oregon living in the small town they grew up in. Remote is the future and allows wonderful quality of life. But note that these examples are all the same time zone. My comments are from experience, I’ve been on teams with mixed time zones. And the issues from mixed time zones are hidden and silent because no one wants to upset anyone. No one wants to tell the manager that Bob is nice but hard to work with because he’s never online when we need him. But that doesn’t mean the issues don’t exist. The best way to handle this is to never let it happen in the first place. If it’s already happened, the next best option is to refactor the teams by time zone, for example hire more in Bob’s time zone and form a new independent team in that zone.
odshoifsdhfs 5y ago
I like to separate remote and work from home. Remote is mostly async, timezones aren't that important (I have worked with both +10 and -9 without a problem) etc. Work from home is to try to mimics the office environment but distributed (work hours, daily calls, etc). And when you mention just one hour timezone difference is a problem, I really do wonder how you deal with flexible work times, or you just expect 9-13, one hour break, 14-18 for everyone? Myself, and many others I know would refuse to work like that (I don't do lunch breaks as I don't have lunch, I prefer to get in late and work late as my brain is mush before 10am, Others that work with me seem to like to start as 7am and leave early) You seem to want work from home developers to work like part makers in a factory.
woutr_be 5y ago
I disagree, for the past 4 years, I've worked in remote teams that were across different timezones and different countries. There are days were half the team is offline because it's a holiday in their country, and it doesn't really impact our team. We know that some people will have a day off, and that's fine, we don't bother them, and nobody expects them to be online. Same with timezone differences, it's generally understood we work 9-6. If it's after 6PM in someone's time, we don't bother them, because we expect them to do the same. Does it take some more planning? Sure it does, if I want to talk to someone on the same day, I just use Skype to find a time that works for the both of us. Otherwise I schedule a meeting for the next day. > Then they realize it's really important and need to chat right now. Having a "really important" issue where you need to chat with someone right now is usually just a matter of perception. Usually those issues can wait a couple of hours, or even a couple of days. All in all, working across different timezones and countries works perfectly fine, I have plenty of time during the day to schedule calls with my colleagues.
- physicsguy 5y ago
  In my last team we had some people in Israel which has a different weekend! And we managed fine. Totally agree about 'right now'.
bregma 5y ago
I strongly disagree. I spent years managing an all-remote team that was spread from Perth, WA to Seattle, WA (for different values of WA). It was a fantastically productive team. It has been my experience that rarely do productive software developer depend on working with each other synchronously (is it the thinking that they share, or the typing?) and when they do, it's not hard to find a common time to meet between two timezones. It is also rarely necessary to meet together as a team on a very regular basis. One catch is we would all meet face-to-face for a week two or more times per year. That was important for planning and socialization, but being apart was when 98% of the work was done.

anonytrary 5y ago

Displeased to see the best comment at the bottom. This is spot on. People will always get the most work done when synchronicity is able to be maximized!

bit_logic 5y ago
I’m a bit surprised at the downvoting and wondering if there’s misunderstanding. To be clear, I’ve been working remote for years and fully support it. Physical location doesn’t matter. A team could have someone in a Bay Area house, someone in Bakersfield with farming as a side project, another living in a Tahoe cabin with Starlink and hiking everyday, another in Oregon living in the small town they grew up in. Remote is the future and allows wonderful quality of life. But note that these examples are all the same time zone. My comments are from experience, I’ve been on teams with mixed time zones. And the issues from mixed time zones are hidden and silent because no one wants to upset anyone. No one wants to tell the manager that Bob is nice but hard to work with because he’s never online when we need him. But that doesn’t mean the issues don’t exist. The best way to handle this is to never let it happen in the first place. If it’s already happened, the next best option is to refactor the teams by time zone, for example hire more in Bob’s time zone and form a new independent team in that zone.

odshoifsdhfs 5y ago

I like to separate remote and work from home. Remote is mostly async, timezones aren't that important (I have worked with both +10 and -9 without a problem) etc. Work from home is to try to mimics the office environment but distributed (work hours, daily calls, etc). And when you mention just one hour timezone difference is a problem, I really do wonder how you deal with flexible work times, or you just expect 9-13, one hour break, 14-18 for everyone? Myself, and many others I know would refuse to work like that (I don't do lunch breaks as I don't have lunch, I prefer to get in late and work late as my brain is mush before 10am, Others that work with me seem to like to start as 7am and leave early) You seem to want work from home developers to work like part makers in a factory.

woutr_be 5y ago

I disagree, for the past 4 years, I've worked in remote teams that were across different timezones and different countries. There are days were half the team is offline because it's a holiday in their country, and it doesn't really impact our team. We know that some people will have a day off, and that's fine, we don't bother them, and nobody expects them to be online. Same with timezone differences, it's generally understood we work 9-6. If it's after 6PM in someone's time, we don't bother them, because we expect them to do the same. Does it take some more planning? Sure it does, if I want to talk to someone on the same day, I just use Skype to find a time that works for the both of us. Otherwise I schedule a meeting for the next day. > Then they realize it's really important and need to chat right now. Having a "really important" issue where you need to chat with someone right now is usually just a matter of perception. Usually those issues can wait a couple of hours, or even a couple of days. All in all, working across different timezones and countries works perfectly fine, I have plenty of time during the day to schedule calls with my colleagues.

physicsguy 5y ago
In my last team we had some people in Israel which has a different weekend! And we managed fine. Totally agree about 'right now'.

bregma 5y ago

I strongly disagree. I spent years managing an all-remote team that was spread from Perth, WA to Seattle, WA (for different values of WA). It was a fantastically productive team. It has been my experience that rarely do productive software developer depend on working with each other synchronously (is it the thinking that they share, or the typing?) and when they do, it's not hard to find a common time to meet between two timezones. It is also rarely necessary to meet together as a team on a very regular basis. One catch is we would all meet face-to-face for a week two or more times per year. That was important for planning and socialization, but being apart was when 98% of the work was done.