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TIL the hard way that a 10 AM Monday deadline means Sunday night in my timezone

Honestly, I had a client in London change a project deadline to Monday 10 AM their time, which is 2 AM Monday for me in Portland. I assumed I had all of Sunday to finish, but nope, their 'Monday morning' meant they wanted it before they even had coffee. I ended up pulling an all-nighter on Sunday, and the file landed at 1:58 AM my time with a typo in the headline. The worst part was they didn't even open it until Tuesday, so my panic was completely pointless. Has anyone else had a client whose 'deadline' secretly meant a different date in their head? How do you pin down the exact hour without sounding annoying?
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carr.luna
carr.luna4d ago
Honestly before this I always assumed deadlines were just whatever timezone I was in.
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averyc94
averyc9412h ago
Whoa, hard disagree here. Deadlines have always meant the client's timezone to me, especially if they're in another country. You gotta ask for the timezone upfront or just assume it's THEIR local time, not yours. I've learned that the hard way too, so now I always confirm in writing like "so just to be clear, that's Monday 10am GMT, right?" Sounds annoying but saves you from a pointless all-nighter every single time.
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