For nearly two years, I worked on an international team—most of my colleagues were in the U.K. while I was in New York.
I wouldn’t recommend this work structure.
When I started my day, I would open Outlook to find nearly a full day’s worth of emails—my British colleagues had already been cracking away for 5 hours when I sat down at my desk.
When we squeezed in team calls and meetings, they were in the post-prandial, jokey part of the day—while I was still getting my feet under me in the morning.
In my own after-lunch time, they were already gone—no response to my emails to be had until the next morning. It was always a long afternoon of solo work.
I’ve been working on the east coast for the past week, with most of my colleagues in Mountain Time.
My lame struggle has been struggling to not check my email after 3 pm…when I knew that there were unread emails lurking in my inbox.
It’s an absurd work FOMO—concerned with what I’m missing out on while having a nice time with my family on vacation.
Taylor Coe 