In case you’re wondering why I would post this on a career-related website, bear with me. One of the biggest mistakes I see in language and grammar involves this twice yearly time change. You see, the official title is Daylight Saving Time. Not Daylight SAVINGS time. Yet it is often referred to incorrectly.
I want you to be smart and sound smart in front of your next employer, which is why I’m even broaching the topic. When someone from another time zone makes an appointment with you, you won’t be incorrect using EDT, CDT, MDT, or PDT between now and next November when Daylight Saving Time ends. But note this: many people will schedule an event and give it the time of say, 12:00 PM EST in July and that’s just wrong, because nearly every state in the union (and all of those in the Eastern time zone shift from Standard time to Daylight time.) It should be referred to as EDT, or better yet, ET if you can’t tell the difference and don’t want to think about it.
For those in Arizona, it’s just the Land of Confusion, because that state remains on Mountain Standard Time year round. Today they share the same time as Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. Tomorrow they share the Pacific Daylight Time Zone with states on the other border (California and Nevada) and become an hour earlier than their mountain state counterparts. Arizonans won’t be subjected to the harsh upset in circadian rhythms, but they do have to remember if they are 2 or 3 hours earlier than the East Coast depending on the time of the year.