As a frequent international traveler you have to learn to adapt to working across hemispheres. \u00a0It’s not as easy as you may think in all cases. \u00a0To some, it sounds\u00a0glamorous\u00a0and exciting – working with people who have fabulous accents and visiting exotic places around the globe. But to the experienced, they understand it’s far from\u00a0glamorous\u00a0jet-set lifestyle you see portrayed on TV or in the movies.<\/p>\n
If only I had a dollar for every time someone compared my job to George Clooney’s character in “Up In The Air” (and yes, I love the movie) or for every time someone said “Oh, I wish I had your job so I could travel like you do.” \u00a0If I had a dollar, or even a Baht (about 33 cents to the dollar), for every time I’ve heard those things I’d be retired and blogging full time \ud83d\ude42 !<\/p>\n
Yes, I do get to work with people who have very cool accents – in fact, sometimes I even need a translator. Imagine a typical two-hour\u00a0conference\u00a0call with a translator – that call typically lasts about 3 1\/2 to 4 hours due to translation back and forth. \u00a0I was in one meeting recently where things were being translated into 2 and occasionally 3 languages. \u00a0Colleagues often ask what the most challenging part of that is – you might be surprised when you hear my answer – it’s remembering what you had said before the translation started! \u00a0Sometimes you can spend an hour talking about something only to discover that the person\/people you’re speaking to had no idea what you were talking about – but they kept shaking their heads like they did, to be polite. \u00a0 True story: after talking about an API for around 30 minutes to an hour the translator finally stopped me and said, “What does nail polish have to do with software?” \u00a0They thought I had said “OPI” one of the most well known nail polish brands throughout the world. \u00a0The translator let me go on for more than 30++ minutes assuming I was talking about\u00a0nail polish while I discussing software.<\/p>\n
The other challenges that you inevitably face are\u00a0jet-lag\u00a0 sleep issues, and just getting used to a weird schedule. \u00a0Everyone wants to know how I deal with jet-lag. There’s a very simple answer for that – I don’t. \u00a0I took the advice of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton one time when she said, “I just nap when I can and sleep when I get tired.” \u00a0 I tried every remedy under the sun, every suggestion I got and after talking with tons of flight attendants and other very frequent international travelers, I just gave up and gave in! \u00a0Now I actually function quite well – in my own way.<\/p>\n
Sleep issues – well, that’s a whole other story. \u00a0When I’m not on the road, my typical day looks like this: \u00a0work with my European counterparts and US colleagues from 9:30 – 1:30. Take a break from 1:30 – 5:00 (which is when I do chores and blogging). Then I work from 5:00 – 7:00, take a dinner break and work from somewhere between 8 – 10 or 9-11 (depending on what time of year it is – some of my customers are in counties that don’t change their clocks at all or at the same time we do in the US.)<\/p>\n
In the beginning it used to be very, very hard for me to turn on the TV at 1:30 or go to the mall in the middle of the work day. It took a lot of getting used to and a very supportive CFO and CEO who reinforced the idea that we are global and work when we need to work. \u00a0This type of\u00a0schedule\u00a0can lead to sleep issues. \u00a0During weeks when I have a lot of calls w\/Asia and Australia I might not hang up the phone until mid-night my time. It’s impossible for me to just hang up the phone and plop into bed and fall asleep. \u00a0So I might be up until 2am sometimes. \u00a0This is another reason why I don’t really get worked up about jet-lag, being up at odd hours is sort of normal for me anyway.<\/p>\n
So when people ask me for my advice about working globally or how to deal with jet-lag my answer is this – do what works for you! \u00a0It’s the only way to make work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a frequent international traveler you have to learn to adapt to working across hemispheres. \u00a0It’s not as easy as you may think in all cases. \u00a0To some, it sounds\u00a0glamorous\u00a0and exciting – working with people who have fabulous accents and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[91,92,26,96],"tags":[139,138,754],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n