Solutions to Jet Lag Problems
25 November 2008
Read by 4443 persons
Text: A key element in the organization for those who spend their lives between two planes or who manage dispersed teams: outsmarting the pitfalls of time zones. Here's how.
Planes, videoconferences, global intranet... Many executives juggle time zones and thousands of kilometers. Like carrier pigeons, they have learned to manage jet lag, and even to take advantage of it. To orchestrate teams spread across several continents.
Whether based in the City of London, La Défense, or Milan, European managers have become masters of this balancing act. Ideally located on the world map, they communicate throughout the day: from Asia early in the morning to California late in the evening. Here are some of their strategies, both to preserve their biological rhythm and to optimize the organization of remote work.
1 Managing sleep and rest time
Based in London and vice-president of Asia-Pacific development at Orange, 35-year-old Dharman Sury travels to the Far East every two or three weeks. He carefully chooses his flights. "I always leave at night, so that I can sleep at least five or six hours on the plane to continue directly upon arriving in the morning. I recover the following night." Dr. Thibaut Gentina, sees many of these frequent travelers in his sleep laboratory at the Clinique de la Louvière in Lille. "For a trip of forty-eight to seventy-two hours, it is better to stay in the rhythm of your country of origin. Beyond that, you must quickly adapt to the local time." The doctor also suggests keeping a sleep schedule, to "know your needs and your recovery capabilities."
Catherine Moussu, head of occupational medicine at Air France, encourages the practice of napping for flight personnel whose schedules are disrupted, "the flash nap of a few seconds that restores lucidity during the following hour, the twenty-minute restorative nap, or the long nap of one and a half or three hours." Caution: "If you have two hours ahead of you, it is better to set your alarm clock at the end of a one-and-a-half-hour cycle." Otherwise, you risk feeling groggy.
To recover at night, the doctor advises sleeping in a cool room (18 degrees), as dark and quiet as possible, even using a mask and earplugs. "In case of insomnia at 3 am, get out of bed, have some herbal tea, a muffin, a not-too-exciting book, and you will easily fall back asleep."
2 Ban stimulants and sleeping pills
Lahsen Assoufid, 48, a physicist for an American state laboratory, prefers "reliable airlines that avoid the extra fatigue and stress of delays." He even treated himself, using his own funds, to the Red Carpet program of United Airlines, which provides him with rest beds in airports. At Air France, Dr. Catherine Moussu insists on the good habits to maintain during travel: "Avoid stimulants at the end of the day, coffee, tea, and even chocolate. Favor slow sugars and fiber. Exercise." Should you take medication, particularly the famous melatonin, which is supposed to reset your body clock quickly? Sold over-the-counter in the United States, it is prohibited in France except in hospital pharmacies, and its effects are controversial. Dr. Gentina sometimes prescribes it. However, he warns against sleeping pills. "Some people feel the effects for several hours, or even a few days after the trip."
3 Saving on travel...
"Traveling can become an addiction. Some managers travel unnecessarily," says Marie-José Forissier, president of the Sociovision group. For nearly fifteen years, this fifty-year-old woman managed, on behalf of the American company Initiative Media, teams spread across different locations. "You had to be rigorous, dealing with each continent as it wakes up." Caroline Caïs, a headhunter at the Taste RH firm, points out that remote management is "exhausting, because it requires constant intellectual gymnastics." She has recruited executives for Russia, where the time difference can be as much as fourteen hours. "The specificity of my job is to work with people who travel a lot. This requires a lot of discipline," adds Dharman Sury at Orange. A telephone appointment will never be scheduled without specifying the time and time zone. "I participate in several conference calls per day, sometimes from the Eurostar," continues the thirty-year-old. "You get used to speaking in a black box, alone in a room."
Didier Kwak, director of the Parisian digital special effects studio Sparx, works closely with his team in Vietnam. "When we decide on a telephone meeting, everyone makes an effort: the French people who won't be able to have lunch at 12:30 and those in Ho Chi Minh City who won't have dinner with their families." But communicating across the world is not improvised. Every important email must be followed up with a phone call to see if it has been received. And understood.
4... by using high-tech tools
Sparx, the animation studio, cannot afford to buy heavy equipment, but takes full advantage of the internet. Didier Kwak explains: "We exchange large amounts of data, including images that we compress. The rest is done via webcam, including the projection on a large screen of certain film sequences or instructions from the director in Paris." Hani Roumieh, marketing director at the IT company EMC, has communicated extensively via videoconference. Regular meetings, exchange of best practices, and even recruitment. For example in Japan! "You can see the look, the smile, even if the image is sometimes a little jerky."
At Orange, Dharman Sury of course uses all the in-house tools - email, instant messaging, conference calls, to which 15 to 20 people can connect together. Yet, for him as for all these global citizens, nothing replaces physical contact to feel the emotional dimension or gauge cultural differences.
Posted online May 6, 2008
nouvelobs.com
Planes, videoconferences, global intranet... Many executives juggle time zones and thousands of kilometers. Like carrier pigeons, they have learned to manage jet lag, and even to take advantage of it. To orchestrate teams spread across several continents.
Whether based in the City of London, La Défense, or Milan, European managers have become masters of this balancing act. Ideally located on the world map, they communicate throughout the day: from Asia early in the morning to California late in the evening. Here are some of their strategies, both to preserve their biological rhythm and to optimize the organization of remote work.
1 Managing sleep and rest time
Based in London and vice-president of Asia-Pacific development at Orange, 35-year-old Dharman Sury travels to the Far East every two or three weeks. He carefully chooses his flights. "I always leave at night, so that I can sleep at least five or six hours on the plane to continue directly upon arriving in the morning. I recover the following night." Dr. Thibaut Gentina, sees many of these frequent travelers in his sleep laboratory at the Clinique de la Louvière in Lille. "For a trip of forty-eight to seventy-two hours, it is better to stay in the rhythm of your country of origin. Beyond that, you must quickly adapt to the local time." The doctor also suggests keeping a sleep schedule, to "know your needs and your recovery capabilities."
Catherine Moussu, head of occupational medicine at Air France, encourages the practice of napping for flight personnel whose schedules are disrupted, "the flash nap of a few seconds that restores lucidity during the following hour, the twenty-minute restorative nap, or the long nap of one and a half or three hours." Caution: "If you have two hours ahead of you, it is better to set your alarm clock at the end of a one-and-a-half-hour cycle." Otherwise, you risk feeling groggy.
To recover at night, the doctor advises sleeping in a cool room (18 degrees), as dark and quiet as possible, even using a mask and earplugs. "In case of insomnia at 3 am, get out of bed, have some herbal tea, a muffin, a not-too-exciting book, and you will easily fall back asleep."
2 Ban stimulants and sleeping pills
Lahsen Assoufid, 48, a physicist for an American state laboratory, prefers "reliable airlines that avoid the extra fatigue and stress of delays." He even treated himself, using his own funds, to the Red Carpet program of United Airlines, which provides him with rest beds in airports. At Air France, Dr. Catherine Moussu insists on the good habits to maintain during travel: "Avoid stimulants at the end of the day, coffee, tea, and even chocolate. Favor slow sugars and fiber. Exercise." Should you take medication, particularly the famous melatonin, which is supposed to reset your body clock quickly? Sold over-the-counter in the United States, it is prohibited in France except in hospital pharmacies, and its effects are controversial. Dr. Gentina sometimes prescribes it. However, he warns against sleeping pills. "Some people feel the effects for several hours, or even a few days after the trip."
3 Saving on travel...
"Traveling can become an addiction. Some managers travel unnecessarily," says Marie-José Forissier, president of the Sociovision group. For nearly fifteen years, this fifty-year-old woman managed, on behalf of the American company Initiative Media, teams spread across different locations. "You had to be rigorous, dealing with each continent as it wakes up." Caroline Caïs, a headhunter at the Taste RH firm, points out that remote management is "exhausting, because it requires constant intellectual gymnastics." She has recruited executives for Russia, where the time difference can be as much as fourteen hours. "The specificity of my job is to work with people who travel a lot. This requires a lot of discipline," adds Dharman Sury at Orange. A telephone appointment will never be scheduled without specifying the time and time zone. "I participate in several conference calls per day, sometimes from the Eurostar," continues the thirty-year-old. "You get used to speaking in a black box, alone in a room."
Didier Kwak, director of the Parisian digital special effects studio Sparx, works closely with his team in Vietnam. "When we decide on a telephone meeting, everyone makes an effort: the French people who won't be able to have lunch at 12:30 and those in Ho Chi Minh City who won't have dinner with their families." But communicating across the world is not improvised. Every important email must be followed up with a phone call to see if it has been received. And understood.
4... by using high-tech tools
Sparx, the animation studio, cannot afford to buy heavy equipment, but takes full advantage of the internet. Didier Kwak explains: "We exchange large amounts of data, including images that we compress. The rest is done via webcam, including the projection on a large screen of certain film sequences or instructions from the director in Paris." Hani Roumieh, marketing director at the IT company EMC, has communicated extensively via videoconference. Regular meetings, exchange of best practices, and even recruitment. For example in Japan! "You can see the look, the smile, even if the image is sometimes a little jerky."
At Orange, Dharman Sury of course uses all the in-house tools - email, instant messaging, conference calls, to which 15 to 20 people can connect together. Yet, for him as for all these global citizens, nothing replaces physical contact to feel the emotional dimension or gauge cultural differences.
Posted online May 6, 2008
nouvelobs.com
