Time zone mania Consultant Code

I created a meeting schedule snafu this morning as a result of attempting to reconcile three time zones in my head. I should have written everything down.

Part of the

Consultant Code

(happy,

abrahamKim

?) is to always state the time zone when referencing a time and to use the client's time zone. My primary client is in California, which is currently on PST. I keep my work laptop set to this time to make it easier to synchronize my calendars. Arizona is currently an hour ahead of PST following MST until everyone in the US (except AZ) moves forward an hour in the spring. I have another client in Illinois that is on CST, which is two hours ahead of PST and one hour ahead of AZ. For the purpose of my clients, AZ time means nothing.

I was coordinating a meeting with three people at the Illinois client. I had asked for their availability and cross-referenced it with my own to find a 30-minute window today that works for everyone. My snafu occurred when I was thinking only one hour ahead of my local time, but I was scheduling the meeting on a calendar set to PST and so it should have been two hours ahead. The client responded quickly, and I corrected the error and issued a mea culpa.

I wish there were a solution that would make this process easier, but it would require access to company calendars that are not likely to be shared.