Time zones are one of the harder parts of software development, but they don’t have to be one of the harder (or exclusionary) parts of working as a distributed team. Here are a few habits I follow to make scheduling more inclusive on a remote team:
- When discussing dates, consider writing numeric dates in ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) or other month/day unambiguous formats.
- When referring to a time, always include the timezone.
- Avoid location-specific language like “tomorrow”, “this afternoon”, or “in the spring”.
- Be mindful of holidays, weekends, and working hours, especially across time zones.
- Consider “speedy meetings” (end 5 or 10 minutes early, or start 5 or 10 minutes late) to allow for time to be human between meetings, and be strict about ending at that earlier time.
- On that note, meetings should start and end on time. If you finish early, consider using the remainder of the time for informal conversations and to connect as humans.
A small nod to inclusivity goes a long way toward creating belonging and reducing ambiguity. When you work with global teams, schedule and communicate with a global (and remote) audience in mind.
