What synchronous work is and what asynchronous work is
Synchronous work happens when people coincide in time: a meeting, a call, a live chat. Asynchronous work happens when each person works at their own time: a shared document, a recorded video, a task board, an email.
It is not a binary choice. Teams that work well combine both: quick decisions synchronously and execution work asynchronously. The problem appears when everything becomes meetings, or when everything becomes messages that nobody answers.
When to use each
Synchronous work is good for what needs conversation: starting a project, debating a decision with several options, giving delicate feedback, unblocking a blocker. These are moments where live exchange saves time.
Asynchronous work is good for status updates, documentation, execution tasks and decisions that can be left in writing. The practical rule: if a written response within a couple of hours is enough, a meeting is not needed.
The challenge of time zones
Between Spain and most of the markets where Filnet opens a subsidiary there is no problem: Portugal, France, Germany and Italy share a time zone for much of the year. The different case is Dubai, with a two-hour difference in summer and three in winter depending on daylight saving time.
With a two-hour difference, it is enough to define a common window, for example the Spanish morning, for meetings and queries. With a greater difference, asynchronous work stops being an option and becomes the rule: written documentation, recorded decisions and short, specific meetings.
What is needed for asynchronous work to function
Document decisions where they can be consulted later: minutes, a project document, a pinned message. Knowledge that lives only in the head of the person who said it is lost as soon as that person is not there.
Record important meetings, have a reference channel per project, agree on internal response times and prune meetings that only inform. An informative meeting becomes a document or a recording, and every minute saved is multiplied in teams across several countries.
What labour regulations do not change
Just because work is asynchronous does not make it invisible to the law. Working time still counts, and the mandatory working time recording in Spain and most of the EU applies whether you work in real time or deferred.
Nor do they change the right to holidays, rest breaks or overtime pay. If an employee answers messages at eleven at night from home, that is working time that must be recorded, not free flexibility. It is advisable to put the rules in writing before organising the team.
