Working in different timezone - benefits/cons

Anonymou · 01-06-2021 9:53am #1

As title says, would like to hear experiences of people who are based in Ireland but are working a "9-5" of another countries timezone. E.g. job based in Ireland working east coast of US timezone so you would be working 1pm -9pm/2pm -10pm etc. to accommodate the standard working hours over there.
Just would like to hear how it has affected peoples lives socially and how you have adapted

newport2 · 01-06-2021 9:59am

I work for a US company. The big pro for me is that I play golf, so can play any morning of the week I like. A con is that the people you are working with often forget what time it is where you are, ie schedule a meeting for 5pm their time, forgetting it's 10pm here.

That said, I have the benefit of flexibility, in that I can work Irish hours if it suits me better. So a few days a week I work EST time and a couple I work GMT. So I guess my input does not reflect that of someone who has no choice but to work EST every day. Even still, I think I would have no issue with it. It's great having mornings off, and 9pm is not too late to still go out if you want.

ILikeBoats · 01-06-2021 10:06am

I used to report into EST. I mostly worked Irish standard hours though (which isn't what you asked!)

The mornings are great, rarely had meetings, but the afternoons were jam packed. And as the poster above said, you often get invited to meetings outside of normal hours. I was pretty firm with my hours though, and only joined when given a lot of advanced notice etc.
The times I did work EST, I found it fine, and mostly did it from home as opposed to going into the office so still was able to have dinner and do bedtime etc.

niallb · 01-06-2021 10:13am

I had this in the opposite direction once which was an interesting twist.
I did Irish 9-5 cover for a company in Melbourne which gave them support from 6PM to 2AM their time.
It was a taxi company so it seemed like a good idea to have somebody available for those hours.
When I started getting included in lunchtime and breakfast conference calls it started to go downhill!

3DataModem · 01-06-2021 10:25am

I work for an australian company, while I don't work their full hours I do start very early (430/5 in winter).

It's great. My email and slack goes quiet at about 10 or 11am. My meetings are all between 5 and 11, then left to myself for the day.

A tip for this: leave Friday's as a "normal hours" day so you only have 4 hellishly early days per week. This was a game-changer.

If you can stomach going to bed the same time as your kids, 4 days a week, 6 months a year, then I'd recommend it. Off out to play pitch and putt at noon today, before a few more hours of peaceful work in the afternoon.

krissovo · 01-06-2021 10:27am

I worked US mountain time for 2 years, at the time it was great. I could drop the kids to school so my wife could start her job early, game of golf or go swimming/cycling. I would start between 1 or 2pm and finish at 9 or 10. I would plan a lunch break at dinner time and block my diary for 30 minutes while I put the kids to bed at 8pm.

Fridays were a pain as that last 4 or 5 hours would drag while our friends were at the pub or we wanted to get away for a long weekend.

The biggest challenge I found was culture, the company I worked for only had 10 paid holidays a year with 5 sick days. Being in Ireland I had 20 and sick benifits but with the rest of my team getting less I kind of followed them and only took 10 to 15. Also public holidays did not align with my wife and at Christmass they would work up to new years eve and start again on Stephens day. Small talk was often based on watching the collage football or the awesome weather when its grey and miserable in Ireland.

Anonymou · 01-06-2021 11:47am

Thank you for all the replies, great to hear the different perspectives. EST time seems fairly manageable in terms of not really changing your sleeping pattern much, just your free time is now before work rather than after work as it would normally be. Weeknight socialising (in a normal world) would have to be sacrificed more or less, although as mentioned if you could get one/two days where you are closer to GMT I think that would be a great compromise, particularly Thursday and Fridays.
Were any of you involved in clubs for sports/hobbies? Thinking this would be rather hard to keep involved with if not able to train or participate during the week.

krissovo · 01-06-2021 3:26pm

Anonymou wrote: »

Were any of you involved in clubs for sports/hobbies? Thinking this would be rather hard to keep involved with if not able to train or participate during the week.

I missed out on a whiskey club I was in for their bi-weekly Thursday meetings

Golfing was a no brainer, I would often join one of the seniors for 2 ball and cycling I would do at least 1 group ride during the week between 70 & 120kms. If I am honest the majority of people in the midweek groups/clubs were either retired or older (50's) business owners or folks who were in between employment. I did a 7am swim club 4 times a month which was fun and a much younger group

Anonymou · 02-06-2021 10:53am

krissovo wrote: »

I missed out on a whiskey club I was in for their bi-weekly Thursday meetings

Golfing was a no brainer, I would often join one of the seniors for 2 ball and cycling I would do at least 1 group ride during the week between 70 & 120kms. If I am honest the majority of people in the midweek groups/clubs were either retired or older (50's) business owners or folks who were in between employment. I did a 7am swim club 4 times a month which was fun and a much younger group

Fair play you were kept busy anyway, I am tired just reading that

I think particularly in the winter time it would be an advantage, as your free time is in daylight hours. Lots to weigh up anyway.

krissovo · 02-06-2021 10:20pm

Anonymou wrote: »

Fair play you were kept busy anyway, I am tired just reading that I think particularly in the winter time it would be an advantage, as your free time is in daylight hours. Lots to weigh up anyway.

Since I have moved to "normal" hours I am now 30kg heavier :eek:

02-06-2021 11:21pm

I work 2pm to 10pm daily and have done for several years, with my current boss being in LA.

Personally I love it and my wife is on the same hours so we have until lunch time daily and we generally hit the sack by 11pm and up at 8am.

The one thing I will say is if you don't have kids (I don't) you have to be strict with yourself about bed/waking times otherwise you'll lose contact with folks and become a hermit. When I met my wife she pulled me out of that bad habit and now its not a problem.

You will have the early part of each day to yourself. In terms of social life, I still have my weekends and post covid, I'll be able to meet friends for an early lunch and still be back home to start work without issue.

If the hours suit you go for it. I cant imagine myself ever working 9-5 now that I have built everything around these hours.

Anonymou · 03-06-2021 3:00pm

Thanks for the reply DaCor. That is a good point on being strict with bedtimes. Workday socialising you might have to make a bit more of a conscious effort for things which is probably a good thing really, and like you say most importantly weekends are unaffected.

Working in different timezone - benefits/cons

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