By Jill Kurtz
Online Career Tips Editor
Chances are your work life involves crossing time zones during the course of a day. Navigating time zones can be tricky, so here are a few tips to help you to avoid calling early or late or any number of embarrassments that can be caused by working by different clocks:
- Don’t make assumptions. Confirm the time zones involved before you set the time for a call or meeting. I once had a colleague in Europe take a call at 8 p.m. because he was too polite to tell me the meeting time I had selected was inconvenient for him.
- Avoid the embarrassment of adding an hour when you should be subtracting one by using an online tool like Time Zone Converter. You don’t want to appear unprofessional by making the wrong conversion.
- Name the specific time for each time zone involved. Rather than saying that you will call at 9 a.m. Eastern, tell your Texas colleague that you will call at 9 a.m. Eastern/8 a.m. Central. Be as clear as possible.
[Related: Getting People to Your Meetings on Time] - If you are traveling across time zones, double check all clocks for accuracy. You can’t even assume that the clock in the rental car is accurate; who knows where it started its day!
- A few miles can make a big difference in time as well as weather. Don’t assume that the terrible rain that’s ruining your connectivity or delaying your arrival is affecting a colleague even a short distance away. Communicate any weather-related schedule changes well in advance and invite those who you are connecting with you to do the same.
Hopefully these tips will help you avoid some time zone-induced embarrassments.
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