The Expat (Work) Hours

It's a Friday night here in Beijing. In New York, I would've been relaxing at home on the couch or out grabbing drinks with some friends. Right now, I'm working and Scott is conducting an interview. Did I mention it's almost 9 pm?

It's not uncommon for Scott and me to work until midnight most weekday nights. That's because right as we're about to wind down, the U.S. is ramping up its day, meaning phone calls with editors or changes to stories start coming in around 9:30 pm our time and usually don't stop until 12 am -- and often later.

Last Friday, for example, I had a story running the next day in the Wall Street Journal. My colleague and I thought we had finished answering questions from the Asia editors around 9 pm. But that's when the fun began, because the story was shipped to New York. Around 1 am, we again thought we were done. I crawled into bed and then my cell phone rang 30 minutes later. It was the reporter in Shanghai who I had worked with, frantically saying New York needed an answer on something ASAP. I got out of bed and found myself sitting in front of my computer, sleepily reading updated versions of our story until 3 am when New York signed off on it.

When I tell people this is typical, they're astonished. But the U.S. really does run on its own time and frankly doesn't care what time it is in other parts of the world. There are exceptions, of course; one of my editors in New York who used to work in Greece is fabulous about getting into the office early to edit my stories. She's mindful of the time change because she's been in my position before.

Other reporters and editors here in China have similar war stories. Sometimes it feels like we sleep with one eye open and I'm guilty of getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and checking my phone to make sure there aren't any urgent e-mails that have come through. I know it's horrible for my sleeping patterns and already I wake up late with this new schedule (see below). But I'm not sure there is any other way to deal with it.

I now see why some people only spend three or four years living abroad. The work hours are simply brutal. Just to give an example, here's what's become a typical day for me:

9 a.m. -- wake up (yes, I know that seems late, but wait and see why)
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- work
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. -- Chinese class
7 p.m. -- gym, some days, if I'm lucky
8:30 p.m. -- gobble down some dinner
9 p.m. -- conference call
10 p.m. -- interviewing someone in the U.S.
10:30 p.m. -- waiting for edits on a story/another conference call
12 a.m./1 a.m. -- crawl into bed

I have been known to be a workaholic every once in awhile, but this schedule takes loving work to a whole different level. The only thing I tell myself is that it'll prep me for being a mom someday! Well, and that whenever we move back, I'll probably never complain again about working late.