Letter from CEO: Overcoming Jet Lag with Relay-Type Work

If the members of the company live abroad or are in a global organization with various nationalities, working hours will vary depending on the time zone of the country where each member resides when working on a project together. In this case, it is necessary to introduce a work method that is different from the traditional work method in order for the project to proceed smoothly.

For example, in the case of corporate organizations located in Korea, the eastern US and the western US, a common working time of approximately 20 hours per day can be created from approximately 10 PM on Monday to 10 AM on Saturday, based on Korean time (KST).

I think the most effective way to enable a common work time of about 20 hours every day is to do it in a relay way, like a continuous run, rather than working together at the same time.

For example, in Korea and the US West, the overlapping business hours are about 2 hours. East US and Korea have completely opposite time zones, so there are no overlapping business hours. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for members from Korea and the eastern United States to work together in real time.

If we assume that the project is started in Korea, the start time of the work in the eastern part of the US is about 3 hours after the Korean departure time (about 6 o’clock). The disconnect occurs because there is no overlapping business hours between the East US and Korea time zones.

Conversely, if the project is started in the US East region, business hours (20 hours in total) will extend from the US East to the US West and South Korea, so executives in the US East will receive a report on the progress of the 20 hours the next morning.

But you can’t start all your projects from one fixed place, and each member has different business hours and time lags.

In this situation, it is easy for company members to be tempted to work virtually 24 hours a day. This leads to a sharp increase in work fatigue and disrupts the biorhythm. Since members have different emotions or rhythms depending on their time zone (morning and afternoon), even minor misunderstandings or emotional conflicts may arise.

Therefore, the more global the organization, the more it is necessary to understand each other’s business hours and to make a thorough commitment to each other. And for effective communication, I believe that work should be carried out in a relay manner using global collaboration tools.

‘Collavate’ is a global document collaboration platform created with this phenomenon in mind, as Collavate has been carrying out projects with team members in Korea, the United States, and India for the past 10 years.

Collavate’s electronic approval and document collaboration functions are the key to clarifying each role and time frame in order to advance the project globally.

In addition, if you proceed with a project based on cloud documents, you can collaborate while maintaining the context of the conversation. At this time, the completed document is linked with the project and becomes an important asset necessary for the completion of the project, which is easily accessible to all members involved.

In other words, you can complement and complete the document content through common editing, suggestion mode, and comments, which are the characteristics of excellent cloud document collaboration.

The electronic approval function of ‘Collavate’ enables each member to perform tasks according to their own work order as if they were relaying and finishing them according to their roles. Members don’t have to work against time zone lags.

The electronic approval post comment function provided by ‘Collavate’ is a space where members can freely share their opinions about the ongoing project process. You can add new members or discuss project status as the project progresses.

In this way, I hope that through ‘Collavate’, each of us can work in the best condition in the time zone in which they are located, and that we can successfully carry out global projects quickly.

Justin SW Jung
CEO & Founder
Collavate Inc.