Here are things you can try to make meetings more manageable when you’re in a remote team! But there are tips and tricks seasoned distributed teams have learned along the way.

There’s no silver bullet for scheduling meetings with colleagues in different time zones. There’s just no way around it! Luckily, you can make scheduling meetings across time zones more bearable with a few tried and tested tips. Scheduling Meetings Globallyīut what if you have a fully-remote workforce, with employees spread across continents? If you have teammates in the U.S., Australia, London, Japan, and the Middle East, and you want to meet at a common hour, some of you would have to wake up extremely early or stay up very late to attend the meeting. If you want to schedule a meeting at 8:00 AM PST, consider that in Paris, Berlin, or Amsterdam, they’ll be wrapping up their workday by then, since it’ll be 5:00 PM their local time. Cities in California, Washington, and other states in PST are 8 to 10 hours behind most of Europe. If your company is located in the U.S., especially if you’re on the West Coast, you need to make significant accommodations for this time difference. Most major European cities are five or seven hours ahead of EST.Ĭountries following GMT (Greenwich Median Time, or EST +4):Ĭountries following CET (Central European Time, EST +6):Ĭountries following EET (Eastern European Time, EST +7): Meeting with teams across time zones can be tricky, especially if you’re a U.S company meeting colleagues in Europe! When scheduling meetings, you must take into consideration the significant time difference. Scheduling Meetings Across Time Zones in Europe Scheduling calls during these hours ensures that no one has to get up too early or stay at the office too late to attend meetings. These hours work well because they are in the middle of the workday, no matter where within the four zones you are.įor example, if you hold a meeting in the early afternoon in EST, say 1:30 PM, you’ll be catching your CST and MST colleagues around lunch (at 12:30 PM and 11:30 AM respectively), and your PST co-workers well after their shift has started (10:30 AM). The best way to coordinate with teammates across these time zones is by holding meetings during 1:00-3:00 PM EST. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Bolivia fall within this category. In addition to these, some countries are just ahead of U.S. Latin American countries are also within these time zones: If you have teammates in Canada, they’ll likely be within one of these time zones as well – unless they’re from the Atlantic coastal provinces (ahead of EST by 1 hour) or Newfoundland (ahead of EST by 2 hours). work within Eastern Standard Time (EST), Central (CST), Mountain (MST), and Pacific (PST). What time do you usually work? If you have a fully distributed team in America, you probably have colleagues in up to four major time zones.

Scheduling Meetings Across Time Zones in America Here are our tips for coordinating work and ensuring no one on your team gets left behind. However, with careful planning and communication, it is possible to make it work. Overall, working across time zones can be a bit of a challenge. This can make it difficult to focus and be productive. If you’re traveling to meet with colleagues in person, you may experience jet lag. This can make it difficult to communicate or collaborate on projects.įinally, there’s the issue of adjusting to a different time zone. If you’re working with someone in a different time zone, they may be starting their workday when you’re just getting off work. This can make scheduling meetings and calls a bit more complicated.Īnother challenge is the issue of different work hours. When you’re trying to arrange a meeting or conference call, you have to take into account the time difference between everyone involved. While having a global workforce can be exciting and offer new opportunities for collaboration, it also comes with a few challenges. Of course, the rise of remote work means working with colleagues in different countries and scheduling meetings across time zones. With email, instant messaging, video conferencing, and other tools, it’s easy to stay in touch with colleagues and clients no matter where you are. One is that technology has made it more convenient to be connected no matter where you are. There are several reasons why more and more people are working remotely today.

Meeting schedule time zone