Global software development teams are a major part of most companies today. They offer many benefits to US companies, including access to additional technical talent pools, diverse thought and experience, enhanced company culture, and of course, cost savings. If that international team is in similar time zones, like our Latin American nearshore teams at AgilityFeat, you have the added benefit of similar working hours and stronger team collaboration.
There is one area that requires strong and proactive communication between a US company and their international developers: holidays.
Vacation or other personal time off is relatively easy to handle as long as it’s given with proper notice to the client and fits within whatever paid time off policies were put in place as part of the contractor or employment agreement. Holidays are a different story.
We take US holidays for granted
If you’re in the US, when was the last time you asked your boss for July 4th off from work? You probably never have, because everyone in the US knows that July 4th is Independence Day and a Federal Holiday. You’re almost always going to get that day off, and maybe even another around it if it falls on a Tuesday or Thursday.
Thanksgiving Day in the US is extra confusing since it’s not always the same date in November. Most companies also award the Friday after Thanksgiving off to make it a four-day weekend.
When working with your team in the US, you don’t have to negotiate any of these holidays since they are usually built in and easy to note each year on a company holiday calendar.
Every country has its own Independence Day!
When you start working internationally, you are quickly reminded of the obvious: Every country has its own Independence Day! Some of them, like our office in Panama, have multiple independence days in the same month to celebrate independence from Spain in 1821 and then later from Colombia in 1903. And just like the US has its unique holiday of Thanksgiving, each country in Latin America has their own unique holidays, both secular and religious, that are often turned into three day weekends.
At AgilityFeat, we have offices in the US, Panamá, and Colombia, so that’s already three sets of holidays to consider. But it’s even more complicated than that for us. When you add in our WebRTC.ventures side of the business, we have contractors in nearly 20 countries around the world. With that level of complexity, there is no singular “company holiday” calendar!
Handling the Holidays with International Teams
While your company is likely not balancing as many countries as we do, you still need to carefully consider how to handle international holidays. Here’s our recommendations, and what we tell our clients at AgilityFeat:
Holidays require two-way communication
Both the company and the developer need to clearly communicate around this issue. Your developers in Latin America likely aren’t familiar with most US holidays, and need to know when their US teammates will not be available for collaboration. Likewise, your developers in Latin America should not expect you to know their local holidays and need to communicate with you about upcoming days they want to take off.
Respect Cultural Differences
In many Latin American countries, a holiday is not just a national celebration or a religious event, but an important part of Latin family life. It’s not unusual for someone in Latin America to move to a big city for work opportunities. They really value the three-day holiday weekends to travel to their hometown to celebrate with large family fiestas or barbecues. If you show sensitivity to their local culture and needs by supporting them in their major holidays, your developers will appreciate it greatly. This reduces the risk of developer attrition.
Communicate Clearly and Early (especially around project deadlines)
If you’re a team lead and you are asking the team to commit to an upcoming project deadline, don’t forget to ask about any upcoming holidays or vacations. The developer may assume that they can finish their own work and still take an upcoming three-day holiday weekend. They forget that their absence could jeopardize communication with others who don’t have that day off. It’s much less stressful to receive and make accommodations for these day off requests early. This requires reminders from project leads to ask their team to report any planned holidays or vacations and plan for these in their timelines.
Allow Holiday Substitutions
Are holidays or vacation days paid or unpaid with your international team? You’ll need to check your contracts first. Hourly contractors usually are only compensated for the hours they work. But if your contractor is paid a flat monthly rate as the majority of ours are, there may be an explicit agreement or an implicit assumption on paid time off. Regardless of the financial implications of the time off, it’s a good idea to allow your international contractors to substitute US holidays for their local holidays. Someone in Colombia is not going to have any interest in taking two days off for the US Thanksgiving holiday, but they’ll be grateful if you allow them the flexibility to apply those days to their local holidays. And as a bonus, it means your international team will still be making progress on the backlog even while the US team is on holiday!
Foreign Contractors v. Local Employees
Most of the advice above assumes that you are working with your global team members as international contractors in some form where it is not the responsibility of the US client company to comply with local labor laws since either the contractor or the contracting agency is handling local taxes and other laws.
Another option is to establish your own subsidiary in a Latin American country under a “Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)” model, and this is a service we can provide for you. While your local development team is being built for you, we train you along the way on how to operate it. Local labor laws are an important component of that knowledge transfer in order to understand and comply with regulations such as mandated holidays and vacation time. Although this model carries additional complexity, using a firm like ours with experience in establishing local development subsidiaries will reduce the complexity and risk for you. The benefit of this model is that additional cost savings can be achieved over a staff augmentation model, and you end up having more direct control of how and where work is performed.
Proactivity on both sides is key to success
At AgilityFeat, we coach our development teams on managing holiday schedules thoughtfully, balancing project needs with personal and cultural time off. It’s also essential for companies working with global teams to proactively address holiday planning, ensuring clear communication and cultural respect.
By fostering a collaborative environment that values team members’ local holidays and traditions, you not only prevent last-minute disruptions but also strengthen team loyalty and morale. With the right approach, managing international holidays becomes a pathway to smoother operations and a more connected, resilient team.
If you’re looking for more video tips on nearshore software development, be sure to follow AgilityFeat on YouTube and to contact us for more information about building a custom team for your company in Latin America!
