Late nights

The advantage about working in a global company is the opportunity to work in another country. The disadvantage is when your global headquarters is based in a country that has a 12 hour time difference. Especially when it is 12 hours behind you. For some reason, people seem to think it is okay to schedule teleconferences at 1 pm their time and completely forget (regardless of how many times you tell them) that yes, Singapore is still 12 hours ahead and that means the teleconference is at 1 am for me. Personally, I draw the line at 11 pm. I will not take a call any later than 11 pm and most times the calls need to end at 11 pm. Partly because I personally am not a night person and I get pretty useless after about 10 pm and mostly because it is just wrong to be working at that hour of the night.

It is currently 9:30 pm and I'm listening in on a teleconference. This is the second night in the row and I have another late night tomorrow night. I am by no means complaining...this is part of the job and I've known that for many years. And I should give some props to my colleagues reading this from the US who hold late night or early morning calls themselves to accommodate those of us in different time zones. It can just be challenging to not end up working too much because I need to be in the office by 8 am for the local meetings but am on calls until late hours. As Alan would say..."All work and no play make for a dull Kate".

This week seems to be an incredibly challenging week that is stacked with early morning and late night calls every day. Next week won't be nearly so difficult from a meeting perspective. Although, next week I'm going to be in Sydney so that makes the time difference 14 hours instead of just 12. That means I actually have to use my fingers to count out the time difference to make sure I have the times correct. 12 hours is just so much easier to calculate.

Regardless, the week is half over now that it is Wednesday evening here. The early mornings and late calls combined with a smidge of jet lag mean that this weekend can't come fast enough!