Going out on your own should mean freedom to set your own hours. I am a night person meaning that I am most productive at night because for some reason it becomes much easier for me to focus. However, most of the people we have to interact with are day people and expect things to happen during the day such as phone calls, email replies, etc.. I don’t know what defines a company as being “global”, but we have clients in three different continents and members in five so there is no such thing as a timezone with us.
The reason I bring this up is because I wonder is it fair for people to expect you to be available at at the same times of the day that they are available? I do believe you should cater to the people paying the bills, but if you begin to cater too much to all their time requests aren’t you giving up the freedom you so longed for in the first place? It seems the only way to get around this is to let people know what times are good for you.
I understand if you are a company that only deals with clients in timezones near yourself or are lucky enough to simply have great local clients, then you should be available at their times. However, I do believe less and less of us have that luxury so what do we do if anything?
Originally posted on October 18, 2005 @ 10:55 am