What does the following mean?

WHEN: 1:00 pm Pacific Time

To most folks in the US it would mean: after lunch in the west.

To most in rest of the world: “Bah! They forgot there is a world outside their own, again!”.

If you specify a time in your own time zone, also specify the corresponding UTC (aka GMT) time so people can easily calculate at what time the meeting is in theirs. Also adding the actual date is good right next to the time. Don’t rely on the date of the email itself, or saying something like “Later today..”.

The burden is on the writer, not the reader!

BTW, that example comes straight from an “internal only email”. GRRrr.

Comments

Philip Paeps: Wed Sep 16 2009, 09:06

Surely you have a script in your shell-profile to translate times…
Geert JM Vanderkelen: Wed Sep 16 2009, 10:04

That's the whole point: the writer should use that shell-script (or whatever tool), not the reader.
Philip Paeps: Thu Sep 17 2009, 10:20

Yes, but people are stupid and use Microsoft toys. Fighting windmills is pointless.