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Follow-the-sun operations
Follow-the-sun operations is a multi-site system where work moves across time zones between awake teams. One PH seat writing a morning note is a two-node version, not a global program.
How it works
Real FTS needs at least two staffed sites and a defect metric. Do not sell FTS if Mexico is out of scope and you have one Cebu hire. You have overnight coverage plus a handoff. For a U.S. company hiring one Filipino teammate, write this into the brief, the employment contract, and the peso payroll file before the start date. Slack habits do not override the Labor Code, BIR, or NPC. If the local employer of record holds the paper, they run the statutory step; you still owe a clean operating definition so the seat does not fail in week three. Put a number on the example when you budget loaded cost, because a nameless allowance always returns as a December surprise or a missed SLA.
Example: PH overnight plus U.S. dayside, two people, one queue, defect rate tracked. That is small FTS. Twenty sites in four countries is the poster version.
How it differs
Follow-the-sun handoff is the artifact. Overnight coverage is the PH node. U.S. client hour demand is why the sun is followed.
Common errors
Naming a single VA a ‘follow-the-sun strategy.’
In practice
Treat Follow-the-sun operations as a week-one operating object. Use the sector fact as context for a slate, not as proof about one person. Headcount in the millions does not staff your Tuesday. Write an owner - founder, local employer, or worker - and a date you will look at it again: first cutoff, first holiday, or first miss. If nobody can show a contract clause, a payslip line, a calendar block, or a checklist box, you do not have follow-the-sun operations yet. You have a conversation. Convert the conversation before the person starts, while changing the deal still costs a paragraph rather than a resignation. Re-read the worked example above against the actual hire in front of you. If the numbers in that example cannot be swapped for this seat’s pesos, hours, and start date, the brief is still unfinished.