World Clock






Sunset in Haifa



Sunrise in California

Israel is in time zone GMT+2.  That means that it is two hours ahead of London, one hour ahead of Germany, and in line with Kaliningrad, Russia. I know this because every time I book a conference through the tool at work, I have to select "Kaliningrad" from a host of other, better-known cities.  We are also considered "Eastern Europe" which according to Windows can be Amman, Athens, Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem, Minsk, Helsinki or Istanbul.  Baghdad is plus one hour.  Fortunately, the people at Microsoft are enlightened enough to include Jerusalem in their list of choices.  One would think with all the politics surrounding that city, they would offer Tel Aviv instead.  But aside from what you call our time zone, the important thing is that it's nearly halfway around the world from the US.

The other time that matters in our lives is Pacific Standard Time, for California.  It wreaks havoc with our evenings and I suppose the evenings of anyone in Israel who has business with Silicon Valley.  My coworkers talk about how much they enjoy the flexible hours-- no one expects to see you 9-5 in the office--but it can easily devolve into working around the clock.  Here's how a busy day goes:

7:00 a.m. Israel /9:00 p.m. PST: The sun touches the top of Mt. Carmel and starts to warm the sand.  It's the beginning of another wonderful day in paradise.  West Coast workers have just put the kids to bed.  This is a good time for meetings.

8:00/10:00: You've had your cup of coffee and a little yogurt.  Time to fire up the laptop and check on the old inbox.  Emails from the states have come in overnight.  At 8:30 you get on a call with a very tired-sounding US coworker taking the call from home.  They will be asleep if you don't make it interesting.

10:00/12:00: Midnight in the states so cross-site meetings are totally out of the question.  Grab a second cup of coffee and start the face-to-face meetings with the co-workers in the office. 

11:45/1:45:  Hit the cafeteria early in time to get a seat.  No rush on replying to the emails from the states--they are in dreamland.

1:00/3:00: More face-to-face meetings, or, if you’re lucky, time for some productive work.

4:00/6:00: Rush home and do the shopping, pick up the kids, have family time.  The US stirs--the East Coast starts their business day.

5:00/7:00: The only chance you have to intercept your over-worked colleague in the states.  Their calendar has been booked solid, so you can only chat over their coffee.  Your dinner is going to be late.

7:00/9:00:  Prime time to hop back on the horn.  The West Coast is up and humming, just starting the day.  You watch the sun set outside your window as the next foil deck pops up on screen.

9:00/11:00: US is going strong and you’re starting to fade… 

11:00/1:00:  Here's your big break--time for bed.  Tomorrow's another big day.

Of course, this type of day is only possible three days/and four nights a week (Monday-Thursday nights; Monday morning in Israel is Sunday night in CA and is usually out of the question).  On Sunday night in Israel, you have blissful free time since the US is waking up to go to church or not waking up as they please.  On Friday night you are allowed not to attend meetings because the whole country is shut down for Shabbat (see my other post for more on this).  Saturday is the one day of harmonic convergence when both sites are not working and not bothering each other.  Thank goodness for that!

Israel is a nice country, but the time zone disconnect to the US West Coast is just wicked.  Computers have done everything to make life better, faster, more productive but they haven't changed the earth's rotation.  I could communicate with someone anywhere in the world at any time but that assumes they are awake to be communicated with.  People make it work somehow but it is very hard living in one time zone and working effectively with another.