Working across different time zones is quite common, particularly for writers who work for large, global organizations. It can be challenging if your subject matter experts or fellow writers are spread across multiple time zones. You might find that you’ll be expected to attend very early or very late meetings (or at worst, a combination of both) well outside your nine a.m. to five p.m. work window to accommodate colleagues in different regions. For this reason, it’s best to check the locations and time zones of the people you’d be working with before you start your new job, plus the timing of any regular meetings you’ll be expected to attend.

Insight

Working Remotely Can Be Isolating for Those in Different Time Zones If you’re the only member of the team working remotely and everyone else is co-located, it can feel lonely, and it’s easy for the team to forget to include you. If you find yourself in this situation, be assertive in reminding the team about the need to include you in all conversations and update you about any ad hoc conversations that may have happened in the break room or outside scheduled meetings.

Voice of Practitioner

Amanda Role: Documentation Manager Location: Texas, USA “I work with people across the globe. My boss is in England. Normally I wake up to a ton of Slack messages. A lot happens while I sleep! The first thirty minutes of my day are spent catching up on what’s happened overnight.”

Voice of Practitioner

Robert Role: Technical Documentation Manager Location: Massachusetts, USA  “My team is mostly split between North America and Europe, so my day is usually split in two chunks: a morning chunk where I talk to Europe, then in the afternoon I start to work with the interstate US folks. That’s been working pretty well.”