This policy sets expectations for working hours and availability at {{Company name}}, a distributed team working across time zones. It balances two things that matter equally: genuine flexibility in when people do their work, and enough predictable overlap for collaboration to function.

Standard hours and flexibility

A full-time schedule is {{Weekly hours, e.g. 40}} hours per week. Outside the core window below, you are free to arrange your day around focus, family, and energy — early starts, split days, and late blocks are all fine. A sustained change to your regular schedule should be agreed with your manager and reflected in your calendar.

Core hours

• The core collaboration window is {{Core hours window, e.g. 10:00-14:00}} {{Reference time zone}}, {{Core days, e.g. Monday through Friday}}.
• Be reachable during core hours — this is when meetings are scheduled and quick decisions happen.
• If your time zone makes the full window unreasonable, agree a reduced overlap of at least {{Minimum overlap, e.g. two hours}} with your manager and record it in {{HR system name}}.

Availability and responsiveness

• Keep your working hours visible in your calendar and your status current in {{Chat tool name}}.
• During your own working hours, respond to direct messages within {{Response expectation, e.g. two hours}}.
• We work async first: outside the overlap window, no one expects a reply until the recipient's next working block.
• Nobody is expected to answer outside their own working hours, except under an agreed on-call rotation with its own compensation rules.

Meetings across time zones

• Schedule meetings inside the core window whenever possible.
• When a slot is painful for one region, rotate it so the burden does not always land on the same people.
• Every meeting ships an agenda in advance and notes afterward; attendance is optional when the notes are enough to stay current.

Focus time

Core hours are for availability, not wall-to-wall meetings. Block focus time in your calendar and treat other people's focus blocks as you would a meeting: interrupt only for genuinely urgent issues.

Schedule changes and time off

• One-off changes — an appointment, an errand — need only a calendar note if they take less than {{Threshold, e.g. two hours}}.
• Longer absences use the appropriate leave type under the time-off policy.
• Public holidays follow the calendar of each person's work location.

Recording hours

Where hours must be tracked for contractual or billing reasons, record them in {{Time-tracking tool}}. Everywhere else the default is trust: we measure output and outcomes, not minutes online.