Time zone split (PHT–U.S.)

Rough splits when the U.S. is on daylight time: 12 hours to the East Coast, 13 to the Midwest, 14 to Mountain, 15 to the Pacific. On standard time each of those shrinks by one hour. Hawaii stays wider. Arizona, if it is not on DST, does not move when Manila does not move.

How it works

Write both local times into the role brief. “Available 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Pacific” is a Philippine evening-to-graveyard shift. “Available 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. PHT” is a U.S. overnight queue with a morning handoff. Interviewers who only print one clock create no-shows and accidental night-differential liability.

The useful design object is overlap, not the raw gap. A Pacific company that wants a live standup has almost no cheap overlap with a Philippine dayside schedule. An East Coast company can catch 7:00-9:00 a.m. Eastern against 7:00-9:00 p.m. PHT - two hours, before Article 86 starts at 10:00 p.m. That window is where you put decisions. Everything else goes in writing.

Example: interviews booked at “4:00 p.m. your time” with a candidate in Cebu. The candidate hears 4:00 p.m. PHT. The founder meant 4:00 p.m. Pacific, which is 7:00 a.m. the next day in Cebu. One of them will be asleep. Lock a converter and a written pair: 7:00 a.m. PDT / 10:00 p.m. PHT. Then decide if that pair is the working day you are actually buying.

How it differs

Overnight coverage is the operating choice you make once you know the split. Night differential is extra pay for hours inside 10:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m. PHT, which may or may not be the hours you chose. Core overlap hours are the short daily intersection you protect. The split is the astronomy. The other three are labor design.

Common errors

Assuming the gap is “12 hours” for every U.S. client. It is not. Forgetting the March/November one-hour slide and wondering why the standup collided with dinner in Manila. Treating “they can be flexible” as a time zone strategy. Flexibility without locked hours becomes a six-day week.