penguinsix

I may be secondered to the West Coast soon and I'm wondering how much of a 'disconnect' people feel being 8 hours apart rather than 5 hours apart from the UK?

Right now we're in Washington DC and with so many expats from all over and a slew of flight options available and being able to pick up the phone when I get up and talk to my office in London rather easily it doesn't seem quite as hard. But 8 hours is a bit different from 5, and there also seems to be less 'looking toward Europe' on the West Coast than in the big cities of the East Coast (DC, NY, Boston).

Just wondering if anyone has flipped coasts over here and if they have noticed any difference?

(I know 8 is not much more than 5, but on some of my trips to Russia for example, which is 8 off the US I've had the absolute devil of a time trying to adjust. It just seems that 5 was a lot easier to deal with--hell even 12 hours in Asia was easier than something right in the middle like 8 hours).

md95065

Attempting to work with the UK from the west coast can be a pain.

A lot depends on what kind of hours your colleagues in the UK work.

A couple of years ago I was in a position where I needed to participate in conference calls with the UK several times a week. After a few weeks of calls scheduled for 8am pacific time / 4pm UK time I insisted that *they* start coming in at 8am so that I could call them from home at midnight. Pretty soon they decided that they didn't need quite so many calls and that most things could be handled by email.

Chrissywissy100

Hubby has experienced it both UK side and West Coast side. Swings and roundabouts really. When in UK it was not uncommon for him to be taking twice weekly conference calls at 11pmGMT to speak to his West coast work mates (They insisted on them happening during their working day, at the most awkward times!!!), but now he is west coast so gets the better part of the deal!

I know living on west coast makes it awkward to speak to friends and family in UK, except on weekends.

You tend to find people / businesses (esp in banking) on the west side start work early (often 6/7am) in order to not be too far behind New York dealings, and give them a better chance to talk to UK collegues. Might be worth seeing what hours you would be expected to do in a west coast environment?

Philgr

Depends where you are going on the West Coast as to how many ex-pats you'll find but the Bay Area and LA are packed with them. The 8 hour difference is a pain for a short while but you soon get used to it. You can still call the UK when you first get in - unless you usually get in late or you work in an industry where UK folks go home early but I'm not sure there are many of those about nowadays.

Whether your company is "looking towards Europe" probably more depends on the industry than the location. Entertainment and High Tech companies out here don't look anywhere - they lead the World (in their own minds anyhow). Other industries look to Asia more and some look to the East Coast. If your industry is primarily "headquartered" on the East Coast the move out here may be harder than if that isn't the case.

My 2c.

meauxna

My first response to this was.. Well, West Coast Brits don't seem to moan much about being unhappy in the US. Maybe the disconnect is good!
Unless you're actually trying to stay connected, and then it could be frustrating.

Chrissywissy100

ROFL! So true! My hubby would say that being 5371 miles from my mother isnt quite disconnected enough! Roll on the MIL jokes!

Socal Local

I still work for a UK based company and often start very early for conference calls etc - the first 2-3 hours of the morning are always very busy. My main frustration is trying to make sure I've caught up with UK people before they leave the office for the day, especially as there still seems to be more of a culture over there that once they've left the office, they are no longer contactable.

I think so long as you don't mind starting early there is no need for there to be a major disconnect.

On the positive side, I love Friday afternoons here, as they are generally pretty chilled out with the feeling that the rest of the world has already started the weekend. I also quite like the fact that there is always the option of staying up late to catch someone at the start of the day in the UK if it is a real urgent issue.

penguinsix

I guess part of what I was worried about was just being farther out of the scope of the day--"out of sight out of mind" perhaps. Right now I have another 4 hours or so to call my friends and colleagues in the UK and if I was on the West Coast I'd still be sleeping. Now when I need to go back I can grab a ticket at a moments notice and have two international airports with > 6 flights a day plus connection options from Philly and NY if needed, but over there I'd be quite a bit more stuck.

I'd also miss winter, if that makes any sense. Not the go to the mountains to see the snow winter that some have but the wake up and look outside and see the stuff that fell the night before kind of snow.

notacrime

Sounds like you've made up your mind to hate it already.

I moved from Connecticut to San Francisco. In both places I worked with colleagues in London. The 8 hour time difference was awful, I was doing a lot of 6am calls from home and often rolling in to the office at 7am. 5 hours difference was much more manageable.

But I much preferred living on the west coast. It suits my personality better. And I was glad to be further away from the UK in some ways, I think it helped me integrate with the locals more. There were so many brits on the east coast I had to make a conscious effort to not hang out only with the expat crowd.

As for flights - it's a longer flight, but from SFO United do 2 flights a day, BA do 2 and Virgin do 1 (all in to Heathrow.) If you are going somewhere other than London and need to connect anyway then there are KLM and Air France flights you can take, and Continental connecting through Newark straight to Edinburgh, Glasgow etc...

Dan725

I know what you mean. Sometimes feel like that down here - especially at Christmas time. Thereagain, other times when everyone I know in the UK is complaining how cold and miserable it is, and I'm about to hop in my pool for a dip, its puts a more positive light on it!

Can't really help with the East/West coast thing, but as I've got you down as some kind of international man of mystery James Bond character, I'm sure you'll easily overcome any such worries!

penguinsix

No. After living in many countries I've come to realize there is no 'perfect place' for me. I like a little of this, a little of that, along with a regular dose of change, etc. It's just some of the things I like about the East Coast (proximity to the UK for example) sound like they'll be diminished a bit over on the West Coast (and right now it is either SFO or Seattle--it hasn't been decided yet).

I think my ideal place would be places--houses or flats around the world that I could rotate between as the mood fit me. But not there just yet.