How Daylight Saving Time Affects Remote Teams
Short answer: Daylight saving time can change the difference between cities for a short mismatch period or an entire season. Anchor a recurring meeting to a named city and check each participant’s local time whenever either city changes clocks.
Most calendar tools store recurring meetings in a single time zone, so a meeting set to 'every Monday at 16:00 London' will move on the New York calendar each time the UK starts or ends British Summer Time. That is intentional, but it surprises people who think of the meeting as 'always the same time' for everyone.
Why offsets move
Daylight saving time usually moves clocks forward by one hour, then back later in the year. Not every region observes DST or changes on the same date. A city pair can keep the same gap, differ for a short transition period, or vary across whole seasons.
Where the mismatches happen
- US and EU: The US starts DST two to three weeks before the EU and ends it one week later. The transatlantic offset drops by one hour during each of those gaps.
- US and India: India does not observe DST. The US-to-India offset moves by an hour in March and again in November.
- Sydney and New York: Their DST seasons run on opposite calendars. Their difference changes when either city changes clocks, producing four changes in a typical year and a two-hour range across seasons.
Three practical patterns
- Pick an anchor city. Choose one team's city as the anchor for recurring meetings. Book in that city's local time. Other participants’ local times can change around DST, but the meeting itself stays at the same hour for the anchor.
- Re-confirm the week before each switch. Send a calendar update a week before the local DST transition so people know the meeting will look different on their calendar but is still happening at the same anchor-city hour.
- Keep async fallbacks. If a recurring meeting often falls outside working hours during DST gaps, replace it with a written async update for those specific weeks instead of dragging anyone into 06:00 or 22:00 calls.
A note on calendar tools
Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar all store recurring meetings in a specific time zone. As long as the meeting was booked in the anchor city's zone, the tool handles DST correctly. A fixed UTC time is valid for an absolute instant, but a recurring UTC series will not necessarily remain at the same local hour after DST. Choose a city timezone when the intended rule is a fixed local meeting time.
Frequently asked
When does the time difference between two cities change?
It depends on the cities. New York and Chicago normally keep the same gap because they share transition dates. London and New York have short mismatch periods. New York and India differ by an hour between seasons. Sydney and New York can have four changes in their difference each year. The UK and EU currently share transition dates.
Which countries do not observe daylight saving time?
India, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Iceland do not currently observe DST. Australia varies by state and territory: Sydney observes DST, while Brisbane, Darwin and Perth do not. A non-DST city’s difference from another city changes only if that other city changes its offset.
How do I keep a recurring meeting predictable?
Pick an anchor city and book the meeting in that city's local time. Other participants’ local times may shift if their city follows different rules, but the meeting itself stays at the same point in the working day for the anchor city.
What about the EU's plan to abolish DST?
The proposal has been discussed for years but no final binding date is in force across all member states. Until that changes, EU countries continue to follow the existing last-Sunday-of-March / last-Sunday-of-October rules.