Asynchronous work, done well, removes the hurdle of time zones. It lets us do work around the clock. It gives people the freedom to work where and when they want, get their work finished, and have more time for friends, family, hobbies, and the like.
For non-schedule based colleagues, you should be able to work when you want, at times that suit you. As long as you are regularly getting results on progress driving work, it doesn’t matter when you do it.
Rotate company-wide calls. Record and share meeting recordings. Host multiple instances of the same call for multiple time zones. Shoehorning communication into a single time zone is considered dysfunctional. A bug to be fixed.
Better yet, when you’re able to, just:
Ask if you really need to have the meeting in the first place. A lot of times you don’t, or you can just do Async Meetings instead.
Additionally, if you need to have a meeting, you can always:
You can do this by creating a thorough agenda. Give colleagues time to add questions and input, even if they won’t be able to make it. Record and share the meetings, and give people the opportunity to add their voice after the fact.
If you notice somebody working too many hours, check in and make sure they’re okay. Remind them that it’s not how much they work, but how focused they are on the right things.
Everybody has Progress Driving Work, and responding to messages or chat is usually not one of them. If someone is consistently responding to things or checking things right away, check in and remind them that this encourages others to do the same, which goes against our values and principles.
You know that person. The one who posts things in company chat to show that they’re working and relevant. We don’t need to do that. We don’t need to send up signal flares to show we’re working. Instead, you should trust that others are working on Progress Driving work, on their own schedule. Included in the “signal flare” are things that show when you’re online. Instead, you should:
Where possible, do not show that you are online. Slack, for example, allows you to show yourself as offline, no matter what. Seeing that little green dot at best may discourage good async first behavior, but at worst it may cause others to feel pressure to be online and available more often, too.
We want to actively create separation between work and everything else (it’s already more challenging by default when you work from home, so let’s not add onto that). The default expectation should be that nobody is immediately available, and that means setting your status to offline or unavailable wherever you’re able. This is one way we prioritize Mental Health.