Written by: Deric Ma – The Pro Forum Community of Practice
As spring and summer arrive, daylight saving time once again creates a ripple of confusion across Australia’s East Coast. While some states adjust their clocks forward, others do not, leaving workplaces, suppliers, and clients out of sync for months at a time. For professionals managing projects, contracts, and procurement activities across borders, this creates a familiar but increasingly unsustainable challenge.
Layer onto this the new Right to Disconnect legislation, and the issue becomes more complex. Leaders and employees must now balance not only staggered working hours, but also clear boundaries around after-hours communication. What once felt like a minor inconvenience has become a structural workplace issue and it’s time to rethink how we manage it.
The Problems
- Misaligned Work Hours
- A 9am meeting in Sydney suddenly becomes an 8am start for Brisbane colleagues.
- Regular cross-state check-ins risk being scheduled outside of some employees’ contracted hours.
- Erosion of Work–Life Boundaries
- Employees in non-daylight saving states often feel pressured to start early or finish late to align with southern counterparts.
- With the Right to Disconnect in place, organisations risk unintentionally breaching obligations if employees are contacted outside standard hours.
- Operational Inefficiencies
- Missed calls, delayed approvals, and repeated “What time is that in my state?” conversations reduce productivity.
- Time zone confusion can impact procurement deadlines, tender submissions, and contract negotiations.
Why It Matters Now
For years, teams have simply “worked around” daylight saving. But the Right to Disconnect has changed the stakes. Employers must now demonstrate respect for employee time outside contracted hours and seasonal time shifts make compliance trickier.
Failing to adapt risks:
- Frustrated employees and morale issues.
- Reduced productivity from constant rescheduling.
- Potential workplace relations disputes if staff feel pressured to respond out-of-hours.
This is not a small, seasonal inconvenience anymore. It is a leadership, culture, and compliance issue.
Practical Solutions
- Audit Meeting Times
- Review recurring meetings to ensure they remain fair for all time zones once daylight saving begins.
- Rotate early/late times so no single team always carries the burden.
- Clarify Availability Windows
- Publish clear working hours for each team across states.
- Encourage teams to include “time zone tags” in calendar invitations.
- Use Technology Wisely
- Tools like shared calendars with automatic time zone conversion reduce manual errors.
- Asynchronous communication (emails, shared documents, project boards) should be prioritised over live calls.
- Embed Right to Disconnect Policies
- Train managers to respect local hours, not just their own.
- Encourage employees to set clear email signatures or auto-replies stating their availability.
- Plan Ahead
- Anticipate the time change each year and communicate adjustments proactively, rather than reactively scrambling.
A Call for Change
Australia’s patchwork approach to daylight saving has long created inefficiencies, but with new workplace laws, it is no longer simply an annoyance. It’s a compliance and cultural issue that leaders cannot ignore.
It’s time to start thinking seriously about solutions, whether through smarter communication practices, technology, or even national discussions about harmonising time zones. Change will not happen overnight, but planning can start now.
Because in the modern workplace, respecting people’s time is not just courtesy, it’s the law.
Have you experienced challenges with daylight saving and after-hours communication? We’d love to hear your perspective, leave a comment below.
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