Yeah, we’re pretty proud of the whole SD thing.
Get it? 'Cause it’s like we’re members of this board and all. (cough)
Thanks for all the responses. I’m pretty sure he meant 4:00 California time, and didn’t know or care about the difference between Standard and Daylight.
I think Arizona and Hawaii are the last standard time states. May be some little enclaves here and there. I was in Michigan when in the late 60’s we switched on a Tuesday on short notice by court order following a vote recount that rivaled Florida in 2000.
25 years ago, before we started DST here, I chewed up countless minutes on the company’s phone bill trying to explain what time it was and why. People just don’t get the difference between Standard Time and standard time over the phone. ‘‘No, Standard Time is what us oddballs use.’’
Up until 2006, most of the Eastern Time portion of Indiana didn’t switch to Daylight Saving Time, while the Central Time portion of the state did. (This meant that, during Daylight Saving Time, nearly all of the state was on the same time.)
As long as there are places that don’t change with the seasons, saying PT time requires that you know whether they respect S or D to tell the correct time and compute time differences. Using PST or PDT removes all ambiguity (if it’s used intelligently, of course).
For a Canadian example, Saskatchewan stays on CST year-round; it never goes to daylight savings time.
The further north you are, the longer the daylight in the summer. So it may not make that much difference for you. Still confusing when dealing with those not comprehending CST.
Pffft. Sure, if you want to take the easy way out.
Towards the equator, there no point in bothering with DST. In Kourou, French Guiana (about 4° north of the equator), the difference in sunlight with respect to winter and summer solstice is about 35 minutes. And the dawn/dusk transition is about 30 minutes.
Followup on #24: that meant that part of the time OH (eastern) clocks matched IN, and sometimes not. Confused even the locals: heard of one who called up a business that was open 24 hours a day, and asked whether that was Standard or Daylight.
Just ask him if he means UTC-7 or UTC-8.
Adding the “S” has become standard (heh) practice where I work. Even the recorded messages on the customer service lines say “Pacific Standard Time” year round. I’m sure I’ve seen the same from other companies’ official communications and customer service.
It annoys the heck out of me, but it’s so common that it’s hopeless to combat. I always make sure to say “Pacific Time”, but I always spell it out, never “PT”. I’m sure “Standard” is almost always added because there is a perception that business communications need to be as wordy and padded as possible to appear professional. It usually takes 3-4 paragraphs just to say “No, do it yourself.” The urge to add the extra word can be overwhelming.
I’ve run into this online, but not with real people. It’s always websites that tell me to set my time zone. Choosing EST on such websites does not get me the correct CDT as I would expect.
Could you just bump the interview to mid-November to make things easier?
I mostly use GMT online. I have to move the olde Mac east in the spring to get the correct time.
Working with a customer (on the phone yesterday) I asked him what time zone he was in. He told me “Daylight Savings Time.” Heavy sigh on my part then I just decided to figure it out for myself and asked him what time it was there. He asked “You mean now?”
I would have thought he was wooshing me but after having been on the phone with him for 90 minutes I knew he didn’t have that kind of a sense of humor.
As our world becomes ever more interconnected, it will only get worse. It seems we must work more and more with distant people. Long distance phone service is cheap or no additional charge for most of us. With Vonage, for less than $400 a year I get local service plus all of the USA, Canada, and much of Europe. I used to pay more than that local service with less than half the features.
Is it really asking too much to expect people to know their time zone and the difference between Daylight and standard time? Do they depend on the IT guy or the Geek Squad to set the time on their computer?