TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
We have personnel in New Jersey, Georgia, and Hawaii who interact
regularly with colleagues on Guam and in Kuwait.
Despite our distance, what you're describing has never been an issue
here; they know when it's night here, and we know when it's night there.
If someone tried to schedule a meeting via Outlook at say... 3 a.m.
local time, let's just say that the meeting wouldn't take place.
Instead, it's an unspoken rule that meetings are going to occur as close
to normal working hours as possible. For instance, when I conduct
teleconferences / webconferences with people on Guam, I run them at 6
p.m. here in New Jersey, which works out to be 8 a.m. (the next day) on
Guam.
Anything outside of that would be a gross inconvenience to one location,
so that would definitely not fly.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+vincent -dot- latella=saic -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+vincent -dot- latella=saic -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of McLauchlan, Kevin
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 10:26 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: working and scheduling
Many companies use Outlook Calendar or similar enterprise-wide systems
to allow people to schedule meetings and conference calls around
participants' busy schedules. Ours is one. I assume that many
techwhirlers are in the same boat.
Now, what happens when your US-headquartered company spans the globe,
and people in India want to set up a conference involving several North
American employees? If it works the way it does in our company, most of
us North Americans have 9-5 local time either scheduled or free, but
everything between 17h00 every evening and 08:30 the next day looks wide
open. Fair game.
So far, only a couple of Product Managers at my company have their
calendars showing explicit unavailability for sleep hours, phone-only
for commuting times, and "busy" for their hockey or squash games and
their kids' recitals.
Are any of you being encouraged to block out your calendars on a 24/7
basis?
What happens when the corporation is Indian or Korean or Chinese or
Japanese or... and the branch office is in the US or Canada?
I assume that as much interaction as possible occurs via e-mail, but
many people still insist on meetings/conference-calls to come to actual
decisions.
Any trends emerging?
I suppose, I also wonder if contractors get to deal with
middle-of-the-night conferencing.
- Kevin
The information contained in this electronic mail transmission
may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected
from disclosure. If you have received this communication in
error, please notify us immediately by replying to this
message and deleting it from your computer without copying
or disclosing it.
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and
publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as VINCENT -dot- LATELLA -at- saic -dot- com -dot-
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
