How to Build a Remote Team Culture When Nobody is Awake at the Same Time
Building culture is hard when your team spans 12 time zones. Here are practical strategies to foster connection without forcing someone to attend a 2 AM virtual happy hour. -
Best overlap: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM in Tokyo is 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Bali.
Both teams are at their desks between 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM in Tokyo and 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Bali. A 9-hour overlap gives you real choice here — early or late in the window both work comfortably.
| Local time | 12am | 1am | 2am | 3am | 4am | 5am | 6am | 7am | 8am | 9am | 10am | 11am | 12pm | 1pm | 2pm | 3pm | 4pm | 5pm | 6pm | 7pm | 8pm | 9pm | 10pm | 11pm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tokyo Asia/Tokyo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bali Asia/Makassar |
Building culture is hard when your team spans 12 time zones. Here are practical strategies to foster connection without forcing someone to attend a 2 AM virtual happy hour. -
An 8 AM Pacific launch is 5 PM in London and 1 AM in Sydney. Your blog post, your engineering on-call, your support team, and your Twitter schedule are all picking different hours. Here is how to plan a launch that does not embarrass you in any time zone. -
8 AM Tokyo is 4 PM in Los Angeles the day before. West Coast afternoon windows, the East Coast dead zone, and why the Philippines slot is an hour off. -