This is part of the Working with Global Teams series

A global team, by its very definition, is made of of people in different geographical locations and often different time zones.

In these situations, it is a good idea, if you receive an e-mail from one of the other team members, some sort of sign, or acknowledgement that you have read the e-mail. Sure, you can set up email to notify the sender when the recipient has opened the email, but nothing is as good as clicking on Reply, and typing a quick e-mail to say “Hey – just looking into“, or “Got your e-mail. Just need to talk to Fred & Tish about it“.

When people are not able to stroll into the other person’s office, or peer over their cubicle divider, this small “communication” just let’s those people involved know what is going on.

Even then – it doesn’t have to be a reply by e-mail. Could be an IM, or even (gasp) a phone call. The benefit of an e-mail response includes:

• Usually the reply will include the original e-mail. You get conversation chain.
• If the person you sent the email to is not in a different time zone, it doesn’t matter if the person isn’t online at the time.

This way the sender at least knows whether that something is happening. This leads to a better “team”.

Following Post: Pesky Time Zones

Related articles

• Please – give me a sign
• Working with Global Teams: Pesky Time Zones
• Working with Global Teams: Date Formats
• Mind Your Manners!
• Why do you need email etiquette?