Following the sun

Today, and for the first time in almost a month, I found myself wanting to do less than usual. I have loads to worry about at work/family/home.... but I simply do not feel like worrying about it… for the coming few hours at least.

The few followers of this blog may know that my work focus has shifted a bit with responsibilities becoming 'global' for the past 5 months or so. Mind you, having the word global may look glamorous on my business card, but trust me when I tell you: it’s the same shit, different people... but more important people.

I know it wasn't gonna be easy to work on a international landscape. New cultures, diverse characters, getting caught in the cross-fire of political turf wars… you name it. The most difficult thing was -and kindda still is- the whole notion of following the sun.

My day starts early with requests, issues or projects from the far East. Japan, Aus/NZ, Korea China, and of course India. Around the early hours of the day, more comes from the Middle East and Russia-CIS. Europe and Africa start pumping it up around midday and evenings get intense when the Americans wake up at around 8 PM local time here.

Just to give you a mental image: This week, I had a conference call from 2 to 3 AM (which I didn’t have to attend, but I wanted to – it was with one of the big Kahuna’s) then another conference call at 7 AM (4hrs after that), that I had to attend because I was presenting.

The week before, I had a 2hr conference call at 6 on a Friday morning..

So, you can imagine how nutty things have been. But on the flip side, the experience I am getting is great; plus my working hours can’t be any more more flexible. I don’t report to the office anymore. I sometimes go there sometimes just to remind everyone that I still work there.

Frankly though, I do sometimes miss the 9-5 routine. The abitliy to know that there is limited personal time for me to plan my agenda around it; what to do and where to go and such.

But for now, I am happy to follow the sun...