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How Do You Maintain Long-Distance Projects?
overseer asks: "Recently, I've been working with an increasing number of overseas workers. Regardless of where they are located, or how well they are trained, the common problem that we have is communication across timezones. In a typical 9-6:30 day, none of my working hours overlaps with those of my coworkers in Europe and Asia. If I come in early, or stay late, I can call one or the other but the truth of the matter is that most of my communication is done through email, and results in (at best) a 15 hour turnaround time for even the smallest question. This is OK for large, slow moving projects, but when we are working on 'Now' problems, or doing detail work, it makes it very hard to communicate. It also makes casual communication or constructive feedback next to impossible. Several of my coworkers have adapted by working extended hours, or by taking their work home with them -- this is something that I'd like to avoid. What methods have Slashdot readers found/created to get around the problem of working in multiple timezones?"
I have the fortune to have have a cool job where I have to coordinate efforts with people in both Asia and Europe. Europeans are going home when I come to work, and the Asians are just getting there when I'm leaving work. And they're just starting when I go to bed.
Most of my work with them can be handled via e-mail. So, before I go to ged, I check my work email and respond to issues in Asia so they don't have to wait a day to get a response. I'm not an early bird, but I try to do the same in the morning before leaving for work.
My boss knows I deal with things this way and realizes that I may be stuck at home dealing with a Europe-issue and will be late into the office, or that I might have been up late for the same reason. So everyone's fairly flexible about these things.
Of course, I don't mind taking my work home. I find that even if I'm going to bed, the people in foreign offices are more relaxed when they get an immediate response to a problem e-mail, even if I'm just saying, "got your message and I'll take care of it first thing in my morning".
Also, I got xearth for windows and put it on my computer in the Mercatur view, with labels set on our foreign offices. It helps me "feel" for when people are in their days.
Well, I personally relocated all my coworkers workspaces to within 20 meters of my office. That way, we're all in the same timezone. The drawback, of course, is that I can no longer blame 15-hour turnarounds for the smallest questions on time-differences or language barriers. I have managed to downplay that drawback by using nerf-guns to instigate pseudo-warlike hostilities in nearby carbon-based lifeforms.
Seriously, a 15-hour latency seems like it would cost more than paying someone a first-world wage to be in the same timezone as you. The option I propose is 'consolidate locations'. If you've got one of those tight budgets, you could even ship yourself off to India. It'd be cheaper to live there, so you could even take a voluntary pay cut!
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