Glossary · Managing remote work

Time-zone overlap

Time-zone overlap is the number of working hours two people or teams share live on the same day. More overlap means faster answers, live meetings, and fewer overnight delays. Offshore hires can create full overlap by working the client's business hours, which is standard for professionals in the Philippines serving U.S. companies.

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What it means in practice

Decide how much overlap the role needs before you hire. An executive assistant or a customer support agent usually needs full overlap. A bookkeeper or video editor can often work with a few shared hours and hand off the rest in writing.

Every Rekruuto hire works your hours, so a U.S. team gets full overlap by default. Our country pages show the overlap for each offshore market next to the Philippines.

For a team that wants coverage around the clock instead, see follow-the-sun, and plan handoffs with written SOPs.

  • Follow-the-sun

    Follow-the-sun is a working model where tasks pass between teams in different time zones at the end of each workday, so work continues around the clock.

  • Night shift differential

    Night shift differential is extra pay required under the Philippine Labor Code for work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.: at least 10% of the employee's regular hourly wage for each hour worked in that window.

  • Asynchronous communication

    Asynchronous communication is any exchange where people do not need to be available at the same moment, such as email, recorded videos, shared documents, and task comments.

  • Nearshoring

    Nearshoring is moving work to a nearby country with a similar time zone, rather than a distant one.

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