
Ask HN: Where is the line between being challenged and being set up to fail? - zz-anon
I&#x27;m struggling in my job to overcome some of the corporate structure that his been setup for my team. We are a high-performing agile team with all development based in one area, with product and business leadership in a time zone 7 hours away. This gives us, in theory, 1 hour of overlap a day meaning that if anything comes up outside of that we end up blocked or confused about what product and the business want. When it comes to things we&#x27;ve learned about running an efficient team, we&#x27;re forced to put those aside (i.e. not do them) because they are incompatible with the time zone difference. I&#x27;m a hard worker but after months of this new structure, I certainly feel like we&#x27;re being set up to fail. I&#x27;m trying to understand if that&#x27;s a reasonable feeling or not. I figured I&#x27;d ask the community for advice and input: Where does one draw the line between being challenged and being set up to fail? When you&#x27;re in a tough situation, how do you know which category you fall into? Thanks in advance.
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PaulHoule
See

[https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-
Livingston/dp/093706...](https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-
Livingston/dp/0937063053)

it has a checklist to answer your question.

I am not so sure it is either/or. Probably your product/business people are as
concerned about the success of your product as you are, so if you bring up
this issue that communication is a problem, maybe they'll be responsive.

Working across time zones require some adaptation. Often I have meetings at
8am in the morning with people in Europe and Asia, sometimes I have meetings
at 8pm at night. If you have a few people who do liasoning on each side, they
could each shift schedules by 1 hour and then you have a three hour overlap.
You can get better at written communications, there really are a lot of
options.

Definitely when you can't get in the face of a "product manager" there are
some people who really won't do the job, and sometimes they won't if you can
get in their face.

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tboyd47
You have to go with your gut on this.

I've come to believe that most corporate actions can be seen as obstructive to
progress. It's just a matter of what you are willing to put up with. It
doesn't hurt to always be on the lookout for a new gig.

