Wednesday, February 21, 2007

What time is it?

Two days into my new job, and I have encountered a problem I've never had before - dealing with people in different time zones.

As I'm covering the oil industry in West Africa, I've had to phone people in Angola and Nigeria. But because the big players in the industry are based in the US, I have also been calling Houston.

Nigeria and Angola are six hours ahead of the UK, whilst Houston is six behind. So my working day is going to have to be structured around the times on three continents.

It's all so different from my previous job, which covered a relatively small area of Argyll (although it sometimes felt as if Tarbert and Ardfern were in their own personal time zones).

4 comments:

Ralphd00d said...

I feel for you. In the mortgage business here in the states, I range from EST to Hawaii time (about 8-9 hours difference). Not always on a daily basis, so you are in a tougher spot...

the tomahawk kid said...

Jock - I think the move back east has confused you somewhat. Nigeria were only 1hr ahead of GMT last time I looked. Wait until you have to interview someone in Sakhalin Island, +10hrs....

Groanin' Jock said...

You're right TK - I was getting mixed up between the time difference between here and Houston and the time difference between Houston and Nigeria - that really makes things complicated, as they're separated by almost a full working day.

Erica said...

I cannot begin to tell you how much this has made my teeth hurt.