In 2016, nearly half of employed Americans said they spent at least some time working remotely. Today, there are coworking spaces everywhere from the beaches in Thailand to a historic garage in South Dakota. In large part, remote working is made possible by affordable technology that wasn’t available even 20 years ago. Without geographic limitations, there is now a larger pool of talented candidates for companies to hire from. But what happens when coworkers who need to collaborate closely are spread out across the globe?
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It’s 4 a.m. in New Zealand — do you know where your colleagues are?
How technology is making collaboration possible across time zones.
No colleague wants to be woken up by a conference call in the middle of the night because a coworker forgot it was 3 a.m. their time — and no one wants to be that forgetful teammate either. Fortunately, the technology that makes coworking possible in the first place has spawned a number of tech-based solutions. Collaboration software like Slack lets users set their time zone so that reminders and notifications are snoozed on their schedules. Plus, with Slack’s App Directory, apps like Team Time Zone Pro can be seamlessly integrated, enabling a quick view of where everyone is and allowing users to schedule meetings based on that. This way, no one is constantly asking, “What time is it in London again?”
Developers are hard at work creating new technology that will make asynchronous communication even more successful — think life-size video conferencing or holographic meetings (because why should holograms at concerts have all the fun?). But the costs of such technology means those solutions are light years away for the everyday consumer. And sometimes, there’s nothing quite like in-person interactions, which may be why many companies with remote workers schedule IRL get-togethers at least once a year. It’s a small price to pay for the benefits of collaborating daily with the best workers from around the world.
To see the possibilities in real time, creatives across four continents came together to make this video, spanning 17 time zones from Chile to Canada to New York to New Zealand and Slovenia. Watch to learn more.