(AKA – How October 27 to November 3 makes an already complicated time zone dance even more complicated)
For those of you, like me, who work with colleagues and teams across continents, it can be one of the most rewarding parts of your life. The culture clash, the ability to see things daily through the lives of others, the constant discussion of who is where, what is happening when, and how to break yourself out of your own way of seeing things.
And then there are time zones. Ugh. That important detail that can derail even the best planned meeting or media announcement. Even the dreaded slog of conference calls can be made even worse because of a time zone that goes wrong in the calendar invite.
You know what I’m talking about.
Just to keep us all on our toes, there is the famous “fall back” and “spring forward” exercise that happens each year when various parts of the world move around according to daylight saving time.
This year, yet again, things are extra tricky. Europe and many who use GMT as a time zone point of reference changes their time zone before the USA. And so, even though we will never let a little ocean come between us, we will be closer than usual to our friends on those continents.
But it is a week when even the smartest technologies do not seem to prevail. There is a week of double-guessing. “Have they already moved back their clocks?” “Did I miss it?” “Is this meeting ungraciously early or horribly late?” It is a week when we all just need to double-check our calendars and have a double-dose of patience with colleagues.
It takes a lot to make cross-continent collaboration work. What’s a little time zone mayhem between friends?
HERE ARE TWO SITES TO CONSULT TO ENSURE YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE – OR WHERE YOUR CLOCK SHOULD BE – OR WHERE ARE THOSE OF YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES:
USA: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/usa
EUROPE: http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html
AROUND THE WORLD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time_by_country
