The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote work, but we were already on a path toward it.
In 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared ‘burn-out’ as an ‘occupational phenomenon’, resulting in feelings of energy depletion, exhaustion and an increased mental distance from one’s job.
When global restrictions in 2020 forced companies to adopt flexible working arrangements, a solution to burnout seemed to emerge from the chaos. Remote staff reported increased productivity levels and greater control over their work-life balance.
But has this stress climbed up towards managers?
With around 40% of British people now working from home at least some of the time, managers of fully-remote organisations may be tasked with coordinating paid time off across five continents.
It’s at this junction that staff leave and absence management software has become just as important as a reliable CRM. Remote sprawl is the new normal for many industries: how, then, can businesses plan for the realities of working across multiple time zones?
Why are people returning to work?
In a post-pandemic workplace, the novelty of flexible working may have worn off.
Many industries across the globe are issuing ‘Return To Work’ policies, where employees are now expected to forgo the comfort of WFH in favour of a ‘hybrid’ policy (some are even demanding a return to the traditional full-time work arrangements).
Companies like UK supermarket ASDA are cutting hybrid work as part of a business restructuring, while earlier this year, financial services firm J.P. Morgan announced plans to require all workers to return to the office five days a week.
But why? The issue isn’t as black and white as you’d expect. Managers don’t appear to be reducing flexible working arrangements as a slight to employees: it’s a lack of logistical forethought (and not having the right tools).
Why unmanaged absence can hurt remote teams (if mismanaged)
Managers of fully-remote teams have a lot on their plates: keeping track of who’s in, who’s off, when and where is much more than just your standard HR headache. There are even talks of ‘the infinite work day’, a global trend identified by Microsoft.
Always‑on chat traffic now tops 275 interruptions per employee per day and starts as early as 06:00, which means even one unrecorded holiday can ripple across multiple time zones.
Add to that the fact that fully remote workers already log 42 % more out‑of‑hours chats, and you have a perfect storm. Invisible gaps, frazzled colleagues, and costly overtime, all of which erode the remote‑work promise of flexibility.
Coordination chaos and productivity loss
Did you know that remote employees often ‘stretch’ their working day to catch colleagues in other time zones?
That’s according to behaviour identified by Harvard Business School. One of the realities of fully-remote working is that, when some employees are logging off for the day, others are just waking up. These mismatched hours can make connections difficult.
Without the right tools and policies in place, it can even have a gendered disadvantage for women with caregiving responsibilities. Finding the right time for synchronous communication is key, and to achieve this, businesses must be on top of their schedules.
Burnout, presenteeism and wellbeing
While one of the main perks of flexible working is that workers report a better work-life balance, it can also blur these boundaries. Not having to commute or even leave your home for a 9–5 shift can make maintaining a clear separation difficult in a different way.
When 72 % of remote or hybrid staff admit they’ll work through illness rather than log a sick day, productivity may look stable, but people are silently burning out. Presenteeism can even have a knock-on effect on physical health if people-first policies aren’t in place.
Musculoskeletal disorders already cost UK employers 7.8 million days a year. If employees are increasingly skipping breaks or working from non‑ergonomic setups, we can expect to see a global increase in back, neck and shoulder injuries.
Financial and operational impact
Historically, flexible work arrangements have had an excellent operational impact on businesses.
From reduced maintenance costs to utility bills, it’s reported that employers who offer their teams remote work could see a gain to their business worth up to 20% of their annual payroll costs.
Even employees see the benefits: with fewer commuting costs and less spending on lunch, a fully remote office can help workers benefit from cost savings in their daily lives. However, these financial gains could be offset by absence gaps.
While flexible work has proven to reduce absenteeism, some organisations may use overtime to plug the gaps. Studies have shown that 47% of overtime is used to cover shifts when team members are out, which translates to a 5.7 % addition to payroll.
It’s then up to managers to implement policies and software arrangements to keep these ‘invisible’ gaps from becoming a resource strain.
What great time management software does for distributed teams
While these figures might seem like an argument against remote working, they aren’t. WFH policies have an undeniably positive impact across the UK and globally.
For instance, 80 % of Scottish workers say flexible or remote options improve their quality of life (happier staff being much less likely to burn out).
Equally, home‑working Britons save an average 56 minutes of commuting every day, and much of that goes into extra sleep, exercise and activities that promote well-being (this is according to the Office for National Statistics).
Studies as recent as June 2025 have estimated that, by 2030, flexible working could boost productivity by 11% in the US and 12% in the UK, contributing a staggering $219 billion and £24 billion to their respective economies each year.
While these figures might seem like an argument against remote working, they aren’t. WFH policies have an undeniably positive impact across the UK and globally.
For instance, 80 % of Scottish workers say flexible or remote options improve their quality of life (happier staff being much less likely to burn out).
Equally, home‑working Britons save an average 56 minutes of commuting every day, and much of that goes into extra sleep, exercise and activities that promote well-being (this is according to the Office for National Statistics).
Studies as recent as June 2025 have estimated that, by 2030, flexible working could boost productivity by 11% in the US and 12% in the UK, contributing a staggering $219 billion and £24 billion to their respective economies each year.
Real‑time dashboards
With workers across continents, instant capacity insight is non-negotiable. Modern absence tracking platforms surface live head‑count data so that managers spot coverage gaps before they bite.
Live widgets update the moment a request is approved, and this way, team leads can see at a glance where capacity dips are forecast for the week ahead.
Thanks to this shared transparency, organisations that adopt real‑time KPI dashboards for dispersed teams may see a jump in collaboration efficiency and lift in employee engagement.
Plus, some dashboards can surface warnings when planned hours would push an individual past local legal limits, a feature required for reducing the risk of unintentional breach.
Time‑zone‑aware calendars
The productivity upside of time-zone aware calendars is measurable. Buffer’s 2023 State of Remote Work survey found that roughly 19% of remote workers listed ‘working across time zones’ as one of their biggest struggles.
When a shared, offset‑aware calendar that highlights each colleague’s local working hours is introduced, those frictions shrink dramatically. The result is a much smoother hand‑off rhythm and an equitable schedule that respects every time zone.
Self-service tools
A reason many distributed teams are slowed to a crawl is a lack of self-service tools. These tools are designed to remove administrative burdens, like endless email threads and shared‑spreadsheet edits.
With the right management software in tow, employees in all time zones (whether in Bristol or Brazil) will be able to request a Friday off and watch their allowance update instantly; the approval should land in their manager’s dashboard seconds later.
Closing the loop: visibility and well-being
For millions of us, remote working has unlocked a way of life we never thought possible. But those benefits only stick when people can truly switch off: wherever they happen to be working from that week.
That is precisely why staff leave and absence management software now belongs in the same ‘mission‑critical’ category as your CRM. For remote‑first leaders, the message is clear: invest in leave‑management infrastructure that’s as distributed as your workforce.
Do so, and you’ll retain talent without sacrificing the human element that makes remote work worth championing in the first place.
