Embedded Files
One of the plusses about working at a large company is the opportunity to meet and work with people from all over the world. When it comes to time zones and managing events, that flexibility comes with challenges - good thing that we have powerful tools at our disposal that make the differences almost disappear.
As many of you may know, I'm based out of New York City and work with a team of colleagues mostly from AU, CA, UK. Here are some tools to make it work!
It's a sliced-up world.
Calendar: Secondary time zone
Calendar: Secondary time zone
Most of my colleagues are from the US East Cost and when we say "let's meet at 3pm" that has come to mean 15:00 EDT. It helps me to always have that time zone visible, especially when they shift. You can only have a single "secondary" time zone. Your events will be scheduled in your home zone by default.
How to enable: Calendar Settings > General > Language and Region > Time zone > Display Secondary Time zone
Calendar: Working hours
Calendar: Working hours
While meeting at 16:00 my time seems a smart idea for me, it's easy to forget that Mark works out of the UK and that is very late for him. Mark helps others by defining his working day, so I can be respectful and chose a better time.
How to enable: Calendar Settings > General > Working hours.
Calendar: Find-a-time to see time zones
Calendar: Find-a-time to see time zones
When scheduling events, "Find a time" in week view is very helpful. But it does not show you your guests' time zones. Switch to "day" view to see if you are accommodating for everybody's geographical region.
Clearly, Australia, Brazil and the UK have very small windows to meet comfortably. None at all to be honest - it requires flexibility from the team.
Calendar: Event time zone (advanced!)
Calendar: Event time zone (advanced!)
There are some scenarios where creating an event in a time zone different from mine is helpful:
Repeating events with people from a different time zone. If your daily scrum standup is in your morning, you and others on your team may slip into daylight savings time. If people from your time zone are more flexible or the minority of the guests, consider scheduling the event in their time zone. Daylight savings time will impact you more than them, but the risk of having to reschedule diminishes.
A single event in an exotic time zone. Say a client from Russia offered you to meet "Friday, 10 am or 1 pm my time".
You are travelling. Events in the foreign time zone should be timed appropriately or you'll have to do an awful lot of calculations.
Calendar: World clock
Calendar: World clock
The sidebar on your calendar can show you as many time zones as you like. It will also show you if it's night or day at your clients' location - very useful if you are deciding whether sending a Chat message is a good idea.
How to enable: Calendar Settings > General > World time.
Bonus: Multiple time zones in Windows
Bonus: Multiple time zones in Windows
Windows supports up to two additional time zones. They are for display purposes only - you need to click the date/time field on the start bar to see them.
How to enable: Right-click the date/time field > Adjust date/time > Add clocks for different time zones.
Being respectful of time zones
Being respectful of time zones
Some general tips from working in a distributed team:
Be time-zone conscious: People from different countries often have different time zones, and these shift over the year, not always in unison.
Be precise when you speak about time ("3 pm your time") and ask when time is not clear ("We fly to the west coast and meet at noon").
Agree with your team on a "standard" time zone. For us, that's "Eastern Standard" (New York time).
Think about your flexibility. A Brazilian will not ever meet an Australian if both insist on working 9-5, unless one takes a plane. Too much flexibility is grueling, too - balance and consent are important.
Many people have email alerts on their phones, so emailing outside of their time zone can be considered pushy. Try scheduling your emails!
Time zones also apply to instant messages, but you can't schedule those. You can help people quiet those notifications during off-hours.
Living and working through different time zones has a ton of advantages - I hope some of these tipps help take the edge off the little disadvantages. Whatever time zone you're in - thanks for reading!
Page updated
Report abuse