JT & Dale Talk Jobs: Start Work At 5 A.m.? – Arizona Daily Star

Dear J.T. & Dale: I’ve been with my company for four years. Now, I want to move across the country. My company doesn’t have a problem with us working remotely, but they do want us working very specific hours. If I move across the country, I would have to start work at 5 a.m. I really don’t want to do that. How do I make the case to my boss that starting at 8 a.m., three hours later in my new time zone, won’t compromise my contribution to the team? ─ Faye

J.T.: I would approach the conversation carefully. If your company has a written rule about this, it’s likely they have had past challenges with people working in different time zones. Set up a meeting with your boss and explore why the rule is in place and inquire if there might be any exceptions. Explain that you want to move across the country and that you were hoping there might be a way for you to start working a little bit later. Perhaps you’ll end up meeting in the middle and starting at 6:30 a.m. Then, over time, when they see that there’s no issue with your workload, you might request a shift to a bit later start.

DALE: Two thoughts: Think through how having someone working three hours later than the rest of the team might benefit the department. For instance, are there late requests from clients or other departments that come in? Second thought, and you’ll probably hate this idea, but you might just learn to love an early start, especially with no commute. Imagine being off at 1 or 2 p.m. every day ─ think of what you could do with those afternoons.

Jeanine “J.T.” Tanner O’Donnell is a career coach and the founder of the leading career site www.workitdaily.com. Dale Dauten is founder of The Innovators’ Lab and author of a novel about HR, “The Weary Optimist.” Please visit them at jtanddale.com, where you can send questions via email, or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.