Daylight Savings Time and coping with being a ‘global entity’.

Dee Primett
Nov 1 · 4 min read

If you live in the UK you will be aware that we experienced the wonderful event that is the adjustment for daylight savings time (DST for the rest of this blog!) last Sunday. I have to confess, I didn’t know a lot about DST until I wrote this blog post. For example, I didn’t realise that in fact, much of the world also observe DST, including most of Europe, Northern America and some parts of Australia. In fact, it is fairly common across the Northern Hemisphere where the seasons play a huge part in how much daylight we can enjoy in your standard day. At the height of the longest day, we can see it being light from as early as 4-something am until 10pm at night. However, once August passes by, the nights draw in sooner and become much, much longer.

So, what is DST and why do we have it?

DST is a seasonal time change that means that clocks are set ahead of standard time for six months of the year. The purpose of this is to make the most of the daylight hours.

DST was first proposed waaaaay back in 1895, conceived by British Builder William Willett and a scientist from New Zealand called George Vernon. Their initial proposal was a 2 hour time change — forward in October and back in March. This was never followed through. The concept was adopted and brought in front of the British House of Commons in 1908, but didn’t actually get passed until May 1916 — a year after Willett passed away. Unbeknownst to him however, a small town in Ontario had already started using DST 7 years earlier!

When DST fries my brain even more than usual

I’m a parent, which automatically means that clock changes are already a nightmare. It doesn’t matter what time you put the kids to bed, the change inevitably fucks up their bedtime routine and sleep for at least a week! But as freelance copywriter I also face another challenge — the fact that all three of my clients are based in different time zones, and all of those are different to my own! And, to top it all off, some of them observe DST and some don’t! My mum calls me a ‘global entity’ when she’s talking to other people, I think to make my job sound more glamorous than it actually is! Anyway, here is the day to day trouble I have with time zones and the effect of DST…..

Here in the UK, we are on GMT. Super! However, I have:

One client who is in San Diego, U.S where the time zone is Pacific Time (PT). They DO observe DST so instead of being 8 hours behind me like I have gotten used to, now they are only 7 (Pacific Daylight Time or PDT).

One client in Dubai where the time zone is Gulf Standard Time (GST). They do NOT observe DST so I have had to remember that they remain 4 hours ahead of me.

One client in Melbourne, Australia where the time zone is Australian Eastern Time (AET). Now they DO observe DST too, and this places them 11 hours ahead of me (Australian Eastern Daylight Time AEDT).

I work a mixed bag of hours anyway, mostly to fit around the kids and so that I can respond to emails and deal with clients at the times that suit them best. I’m very fortunate that this works well for me, but oh my gosh it does get confusing. I have had to resort to a pop-up on my iMac to keep me straight on what time it is where and when! I also have to factor in that in Dubai, the working week runs from Sunday to Thursday, with Fridays and Saturdays off!

Sorry about the quality!

Unsurprisingly, it usually takes me a good few months to full get my head around the time changes… just in time for them clocks to change again!

So there you have it, a little bit of information about DST, the effect that it has on my working life and why I live my life in a perpetual state of confusion!

Dee

Freelance Copywriter and Content Person Mama to SEN kiddos (ASD, ADHD, SPD, DCD, Hypermobility, Tics) Long-suffering wife Smear test advocate Gin enthusiast

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