.png)
Why "Follow-the-Sun" has quietly turned into an always-on culture, and how asynchronous ownership is becoming the real competitive advantage for GCCs.
“Follow-the-Sun” was meant to be a productivity multiplier. The idea was elegant: work would move across time zones, progress would continue around the clock, and teams would hand over seamlessly at the end of their day. No one team would need to stretch, because another would pick up naturally.
What we increasingly see in Indian GCCs is a very different reality. The work is not moving cleanly across geographies. Instead, people are being stretched across time zones. Global roles are interpreted as expectations of constant availability rather than distributed ownership.
Midnight syncs, late-night escalations, and weekend overlap calls have become normalised. Often, these are framed as “temporary” or “part of being global,” but their impact compounds. Productivity does not improve; decision fatigue sets in. Over time, morale erodes, employer brand perception weakens, and innovation slows.
The talent market has begun responding. High-quality engineers, particularly those in AI and deep-tech roles, increasingly avoid organisations known for time-zone abuse. Work-life integration is no longer a wellness initiative; it is a baseline expectation and a decisive EVP factor.
The real fix is structural, not cultural. True Follow-the-Sun models rely on asynchronous ownership. Decisions should be made where the work happens, not deferred to late-night approvals. Documentation must replace verbal handovers. Authority must be localised rather than escalated across continents.
Organisations that get this right measure outcomes, not hours. They design explicit handoff protocols, protect overlap windows instead of expanding them, and empower local leaders to move work forward independently. The result is not only healthier teams, but faster execution and clearer accountability.
An EVP is not defined by what appears in recruitment brochures. It is defined by whether an employee’s phone stays silent after sunset. Respect the clock, and talent will respect the brand.
If your global delivery model depends on midnight calls, it’s time to redesign ownership, not schedules. Let’s re-architect Follow-the-Sun the right way.