Hours and time zones

Time zones are the constraint that distributed teams underestimate. A four-hour spread is an inconvenience. A twelve-hour spread is a different operating model, and running it like a co-located team quietly loads the cost onto whoever is furthest from headquarters. For broader context on planning work across time zones, Timeanddate Meeting Planner is a useful reference.

These guides deal with the arithmetic: how much overlap you actually need, how work is handed between regions, and how to distribute the unsocial hours fairly rather than by seniority.

Fair distribution requires counting, which is where teams usually stop. The figures needed are modest — how many out-of-hours calls each person took over a quarter — and can come from a calendar audit or from whatever time tool the team already runs (Monitask and similar trackers will total hours by person over a period). The counting matters more than the tool. For a practical software-side reference on time records across distributed schedules, employee time clock software adds useful detail.