Waiting
Waiting on them
Most of the anxiety is spent in an interval where the other side has not yet had a working hour, and most of the delay is made of round trips.
Who is working when, for the people on this page
Us, Hamburg, sending the chases
Chases get written on our Monday and our Friday
The supplier receiving them, Taipei
Our Friday afternoon is their Saturday, which is a working day
two parties · five days of the seven are working days for all of them · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
The two days on which chases are habitually written here are the two worst days to send them to either of the counterparties in these notes.
The Reply That Is Not Late Yet
Much of the anxiety in waiting is spent during an interval in which the other party has not yet had a working hour, and a short calculation removes it.
Knowing Whether You Are In a Queue
Four things look identical from outside — a queue, a batch, a cycle and a duration — and only one of them is affected by asking again.
Chasing Across a Weekend You Do Not Share
A chase arriving during somebody else's weekend achieves nothing and is read on their Monday, which is the main reason chasing is believed not to work.
Asking at the Wrong End of Their Day
The hour a question leaves your desk decides whether it is answered today or tomorrow, and that hour is usually chosen by habit rather than arithmetic.
What One Round Trip Costs
Across a large offset the unit of delay is the round trip rather than the hour, which makes the number of exchanges the only variable worth optimising.
Batching Questions Instead of Sending Each One
Questions that occur one at a time need not be sent one at a time, and across a large offset the difference between six messages and one is a fortnight.
Asking For What You Will Need Next
Most of what gets waited for was available long before it was requested, and the delay comes from asking at the moment of need rather than of knowing.
The Escalation That Arrives Too Late
Escalating across a time zone costs a day before it does anything, hands the recipient a message about their colleague, and is usually sent too late.
Waiting On Somebody Who Is Also Waiting
A counterparty who is slow is often a counterparty who is also waiting, and the chain behind them is invisible from where you are standing.