REMOTE WORK · 6 MINUTE READ
Choose a fair meeting time
The mathematically possible time is not always the humanly reasonable one. Use this method to share inconvenience instead of quietly assigning it to the same person.
Start with personal availability, not coloured clocks
A 9 AM to 6 PM workday is a useful first filter, but it is not a promise of availability. School drop-off, caring duties, prayer times, commutes and local working patterns all matter. Ask each participant for a preferred window and a window they can accept occasionally.
Measure inconvenience in plain language
For each proposed time, label every participant’s local time as comfortable, inconvenient or unreasonable. A 7:00 AM call may be inconvenient but manageable once a month. A 2:00 AM call is unreasonable for routine work. Write the local date beside each result so nobody misses a Sunday evening or Monday morning shift.
Prefer a slot with mild inconvenience for two people over severe inconvenience for one person. If every slot is difficult, rotate the burden across meetings.
Rotate the awkward hours deliberately
Recurring meetings between Australia, Europe and North America rarely have a perfect overlap. Create two or three approved slots and alternate them. Record the rotation in the series description so a convenient month for one region is balanced by a later month for another.
Daylight saving can move the burden without anyone editing the calendar. Decide which city’s local time should remain fixed, then inspect the dates around seasonal clock changes. If fairness matters more than a single fixed anchor, create separate calendar series for each season.
Reduce the number of people who need the call
Do not invite an entire team to solve a question that needs two decision-makers. Ask for written input before the meeting, invite the people needed for the live decision, and share a concise outcome afterwards. This shortens the time that falls outside someone’s normal day.
Know when not to meet
An asynchronous update is often better when the purpose is to report status, collect comments or distribute information. Use a shared document with a decision deadline. Hold a call when discussion, negotiation or rapid clarification will change the outcome.
A fair-time routine for organisers
- Collect local availability and non-negotiable constraints.
- Use the world map to compare several candidate moments.
- Reject any routine slot that lands in sleeping hours.
- Check local dates, weekends and known holidays.
- Rotate unavoidable inconvenience and write down the rotation.
- Reconfirm the series when seasonal clock changes approach.
Fairness is visible when the invitation shows every participant’s local time. It lets people correct mistakes early and makes the trade-off explicit.