5 Timezone Working Trends from Sunrize and What they Tell Us About Remote Work Globally
Global Working Trends Are Evolving — Are You Keeping Up?
The global debate around remote and hybrid work is nearly settled. While some return-to-office mandates persist, they’ve become the exception rather than the rule. In this new reality, understanding how teams across time zones collaborate and structure their work hours is more important than ever.
At Sunrize, our automated work hours logging tool has collected aggregated data from thousands of users worldwide. From this, we’ve uncovered several key insights about the way remote teams actually work — and how these trends are reshaping global productivity.
📌 Note: This is a condensed version of our full analysis on global remote work trends. For the complete deep dive, visit: 👉 The Remote Work Challenge: Unlocking True Productivity
5 Working Time Trends from Across the World
1. Saturday Is the Global Off Day
You might be surprised we’re starting with Saturday — but it’s for good reason. Saturday is the only day when the majority of global workers are offline. Our data shows that many professionals work into the early hours of Saturday (late Friday night), especially those syncing with U.S. business hours.
What it means: Teams across time zones often aim to finish their week strong by extending work late into Friday. For international teams, syncing work schedules to align with U.S. or European hours — and ensuring Saturdays are truly off — can help reduce unnecessary solo work and promote collaboration.
2. Sundays Are Quietly Becoming Workdays
One of our most consistent findings: Sunday is no longer sacred. Many professionals start logging time on Sunday — either in the morning or late evening — to ease into the workweek and get ahead of Monday deadlines.
What it means: This early kickoff reflects increasing pressure on hybrid and remote workers to “preload” their week. Managers should consider acknowledging this effort — whether through compensation, flexibility, or recognition — and assess whether expectations are unintentionally spilling into weekends.
3. Early Mondays Are Gaining Traction (Especially in APAC)
While Monday mornings are typically a slow start, many users in APAC time zones are already logging work — which corresponds to Sunday afternoon in the U.S.
What it means: Early activity on Mondays often signals either high engagement or pressing deliverables. Managers should track this pattern to support highly engaged workers, while employees can take advantage of this head start to carve out uninterrupted deep work time.
4. Tuesday to Saturday = Peak Work Hours
From Tuesday to Saturday, work hours increase significantly — often spilling into late nights or early mornings. This pattern holds across nearly all time zones.
What it means: These are the most productive days for most teams. Managers should align meetings, deadlines, and reviews around this rhythm. For remote teams, coordinating during overlapping hours in this window can maximize alignment and reduce asynchronous friction.
5. Working Late Is More Common Than Starting Early
Across the board, working late is more common than starting early — especially on Mondays. Once people begin their workweek, their hours tend to stretch later into the day, especially from Tuesday onward.
What it means: Late-night work might indicate overtime or flexible scheduling. Managers should monitor this to prevent burnout while helping teams stay aligned. For hybrid teams, syncing key work periods can enhance collaboration without forcing uniform schedules.
⏰ Use Time Tracking Trends to Your Advantage
Understanding your team’s working patterns is key to improving productivity and alignment. With Sunrize, you can automatically log work hours via Slack and uncover insights with zero manual input.
Start using Sunrize for free today. And if you’re looking to foster better team engagement, check out our virtual coffee chat and collaboration tool, LEAD.bot.