Omitting time zones is SO pre-pandemic

Omitting time zones is SO pre-pandemic

If you're discussing times with colleagues, vendors or customers, include time zones

Way earlier in the century, around February of 2020, we all used to come into offices together and use phrases like "where should we go for lunch"

Now millions of us are emerging from the pandemic with a new look on being "at work" - we might be at work from home, or in a business center while on pseudo vacation, or from an AirBnb, or a few days a week in the office.

If you're going to be doing something at 2:30pm, it might be 5:30pm for that colleague that moved home to care for an aging parent. It might be 11:30am for that coworker who is in Hawaii for the week. Rather than keeping track of where everyone is, make your time statements include a time zone. Then they can adjust based on where THEY are. If you don't, you may be presuming too much, and you will eventually, almost-certainly miss someone's availability because of it.

It's usually just adding "PST" or "EST" or "CMT" - do it! Remove ambiguity. Let people work from wherever they are, but don't expect them to know where you'll be at 2:30pm.


Catalin Kaser

Working toward a more loving, just, equitable, and sustainable world.

3 年

Also...don't forget that not every place participates in daylight savings time! I showed up an hour early to a virtual wedding in Arizona because I "knew" they were an hour different from me, here in California. Turned out that we are on the same clock at this time of year. Oops!

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Chris Peluso

Email Security, Archiving, DMARC and Phishing Awareness for Microsoft 365/Exchange and Google Workspace

3 年

Been doing this for ages, and I think it helps everyone, myself included! It's even more fun when we start thinking about time zones outside the US. My secret? I use Fantastical as my calendar/scheduler/task manager, and it's amazing at handling various time zones (among everything else). I swear by it!

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