General Question

Beta_Orionis's avatar

How does daylight savings affect international business?

Asked by Beta_Orionis (3410points) November 1st, 2009

I’ve always wondered how skipping back and forth affects the business world. How is international business conducted between countries that observe daylight savings and those that don’t (i.e. India, China, and Japan.)

I’m sure it becomes second nature after a while as there’s already a time-difference to coordinate around, but does it cause confusion soon after the change?

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4 Answers

wundayatta's avatar

Uh… Packages end up arriving an hour earlier and there’s no one to sign for them?

No? Actually I think that ships and trucks and airplanes stay in pretty much the same position no matter what time we say it is. Time is only in our heads. It doesn’t change reality. In fact, it is only as reality changes that we can say time passes. Reality makes time possible, not the other way around.

Beta_Orionis's avatar

@daloon I mean, perhaps businesses schedule regular teleconferences or deadlines for two different headquarters. Or they have a virtual machine that synchronizes and collects real time data, but this hiccup causes the data to be off by an hour for half the year.

Maybe it’s just a dumb question…

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

This has been happening long enough that it is not a surprise to big business operators.

Beta_Orionis's avatar

@The_Compassionate_Heretic I never thought it would surprise them. I just wondered how if might interfere, if at all.

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