The past and future of time zone challenges

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to answer the question asked by Buelen “What do we still need to learn about outsourcing across time zones?”.Design/methodology/approach – This paper serves as a response to the commentary by Erik Beulen in SOIJ Vol. 5 No. 1 titled “I'm working while they're sleeping: time zone separation challenges and solutions”.Findings – The paper finds that we are still very much at the beginning of the “era of time zone dependent work.”Originality/value – This futures analysis leads to the projection that many more individuals will be entering time zone dependent work. While technology may elevate some of the hardships of temporal separation, it will exacerbate others.