A Global Job aint all that glamourous

I have a global job.  My current boss is based in Istanbul, Turkey.  Her boss is based in Budapest, Hungary.  The boss above the Hungarian is based in Houston, Texas.  All of us are nationals of the countries we are based in, which seems to be a given… but in the Company, it is often not.  In my larger team, the work colleague who sits next to me in the Singapore office is a Thai based in Singapore.

There has been a work project I am spearheading… My IT counterpart is based in London, UK.  The first 3 weeks in January 2013 are crunch time, with the Hungarian due to sign off on the project by 25 Jan.  I have spent Monday night and Tuesday night on the phone from 1030pm to midnight explaining and giving input with the IT guy in London.  Else the defects raised in testing just do not move!  There are 2 touch points during the European work day, one at 930am London time (530pm SG time) and 230pm London time (1030pm SG time).

Last night I was also due to be on the phone at 1030pm.  However I felt myself sniffling and falling sick, so told the IT guy during our 530pm SG time call that I might not be able to make it to the EU afternoon call.  I had the luxury of sleeping from 10pm to 6am this morning.  I would have slept even later if not for my work phone ringing at 6am… I answered it at 615am when the caller persisted for the 5^th time.  It was a wrong number.  A male voice spoke in Chinese asking me to come to the door… he started on his spiel even before I had said my first word into the phone.  I told him in Chinese (rather calmly, I must add, at that unearthly hour in the morning) “Neighbour, this is a wrong number.  You have woken me up at 6am in the morning.  Please do not call anymore.”

I hope he got to whoever he was trying to get to.  Sounded like someone arranged for transport, then promptly overslept and forgot to come to the door.  Oh, the tales I can spin from this wrong number at 6am!!!

Back to the job.  A global job in a Euro-centric company requires that I sleep late to be on the phone.  When I had interactions with the Americans in Aug/Sep, I woke up at 430am to take 5am calls.  Some things just do not come across well on email.  If you need quick action, a phone call to explain is best.  It cuts out the non-value-adding elapsed time in getting things done.

I made sure that the Hungarian boss’ boss Z knew I shifted my working hours this week to accommodate the project completion.  Another project overseer (M the Bulgarian based in Austria) floated the idea past Z that I should fly to London next week… I said in that phone call – M, you need to fly to Singapore then to take care of my boys.  I have known M since my first role in the Company 8 years ago, hence I talk to him this way.  Our paths cross again in this project… which lends credence to how I behave at work… Be on good terms with EVERYONE in the Company, one day, they might be your teammate or boss…  

Z intervened and said that both from a cost and work-life balance perspective, it made more sense for one of my Europe teammates to work with the IT guy in London.  PHEW.  I detest travelling away from my boys, especially at short notice and on an intercontinental flight.  The single me 6 years ago would have said, hooray, bring on the travel… I have different priorities now.

In short, a global job wrecks havoc on my work-life balance.  3pm to 6pm every day is spent catching up with my Chennai and Europe-based teammates.  I cannot schedule anything on Thu evenings as there is a weekly team call.  My evenings are committed at short notice to work calls.  I am glad that the next role is a regional East role, not a global role.