Ever since Indiana embraced daylight savings time, I’ve been living and working in EST (Eastern Standard Time). Although I feel more like a Midwesterner than an East Coast native, I was okay with EST… until one of my friends and colleagues with whom I do a great deal of business moved to California – Laguna Beach.
Now, just when I’m starting to wind down after a long day, he’s ramping up. As I’m pouring my first martini, his caffeine or adrenaline rush is just beginning to peak. Unfortunately, this tends to extend my workday, as he hits me with some great, new idea at 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm my time! Damn those PST people!
Years ago, another friend of mine who’s wife did business with people in different time zones mentioned that he thought the entire country should be one big time zone, so everyone would be in sync.
I’m not sure I’d go that far. I kind of like the idea of seeing the sun rise at around 6 am and set around 6 pm. I’m thinking we should do something a little more conservative – perhaps have a new business time zone… BST (Business Standard Time). During this time, we would conduct all of our business – banking, stock trading, you name it. All businesses would open and close their doors at the same time every day. Nobody would have to worry about calling a business after 5 pm only to learn that it closed two hours ago because it’s in a different time zone.
I know, I know, the world already has BST (Bangladesh Standard Time), but I don’t think that would cause too much confusion in the states. Britain tried using BST (for British Summer Time) in 1968 but it fell out of favor by 1971. Personally, I think BST would be a big hit in the U.S. At least it would be easy to remember – it’s the time when most of the BS occurs.
