With regards to timezones, there are a bunch of software companies which are completely remote and global which operate fine. If employees have a fair amount of autonomy and/or work with their local teams, and have sync calls during mutually suitable time slots, there is no real impediment to operating a functional company.

The "flexible" approach does work, but tends to be quite a drain on workers lives. Theres always someone somewhere who has to wake up at 2am for the weekly 'sync' meeting, or who doesn't see their children after school because their calendar is clogged with 1:1 meetings with all their USA reports most evenings.

Not to mention navigation employment laws and regulations. One country is hard enough, let alone doing it worldwide

There are startups aiming at solving this problem, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deel_(company)

I think it's getting better - a number of countries worldwide (such as Portugal or UAE) are making it easier and easier for people to work remotely as "contractors". While not perfect, it's definitely a good solution for highly skilled workers who have a strong negotiating position and can ask for all the benefits their country's labour law would otherwise assure.

Especially around development (on time zones), you have to actively factor in teams and makeup as well as what they are working on to get it working right...

I’m struggling with American “superiors” who won’t have a meeting in any time that isn’t perfect for them.

If it’s not between 9:00-17:00, sorry, bad luck for everyone else.

Ya, poor leadership if they are not willing to use global teams and then lead them through example.

Reminds me a of a quote from "The Last Dance" [1]:

“If you ask all my teammates… ‘The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do anything that he didn’t f*%king do.’”

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8420184/