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Working across time zones

South Africa and US time zones: planning the hours you share

Daylight saving moves the gap by an hour twice a year. Here's how to plan overlap that still works when it does.

JiveTalent team

If you're hiring someone in South Africa and your team is in the US, the time difference is the first thing to plan. It's very manageable. You just need to settle it before the search starts, not after someone has accepted the role.

This guide covers the actual numbers, what a standard South African workday looks like on a US clock, the two weekends a year when everything shifts, and what to put in your brief.

The basic numbers

South Africa runs on South African Standard Time (SAST), which is UTC+2. It has one time zone for the whole country and doesn't use daylight saving, so South African clocks never change.

The US does change. Under federal rules, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. In 2026 that's March 8 and November 1. In 2027 it's March 14 and November 7. Hawaii and most of Arizona don't observe it.

That means the gap between you and South Africa depends on the time of year, even though nothing changes on the South African side.

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Your time zoneUS summer (mid-March to early November)US winter (early November to mid-March)
EasternSouth Africa is 6 hours ahead7 hours ahead
Central7 hours ahead8 hours ahead
Mountain8 hours ahead9 hours ahead
Arizona (most of the state)9 hours ahead9 hours ahead
Pacific9 hours ahead10 hours ahead
A quick check: when it's 9:00 a.m. in New York in July, it's 3:00 p.m. in Johannesburg. In January it's 4:00 p.m.

What a standard South African day looks like on your clock

Say your hire works a regular 8:00 to 17:00 day in South Africa. Here's that same day for a team on Eastern time:

US summer

2:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET

US winter

1:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. ET

If your team works 9 to 5 Eastern, that's about two hours of shared time in summer and one in winter. For the Pacific coast, a standard South African day ends before a 9 to 5 Pacific day begins.

For a lot of roles, that's fine. Bookkeeping, research, content, data work and much of development are about output, not being online at the same moment. Your hire works through the queue while you sleep, and you wake up to finished work and a short written update.

For other roles, like an executive assistant running your calendar, a customer service agent covering your business hours, or a developer in daily standups, you'll want more shared time. That's where the schedule comes in.

Three ways to set the schedule

There isn't one right answer. It depends on the role. Here are three common patterns.

1. Standard South African day, short overlap

The hire works local daytime hours and you use the one or two shared hours for a daily check-in. Everything else runs in writing. This works best when the work can be handed over in a clear queue. Our guide to building an async culture covers the habits that make it work.

2. A shifted day

The hire starts later and finishes in the evening. A 12:00 to 21:00 day in South Africa is 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern in US summer (6 hours of overlap with a 9 to 5 ET team) and 5:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in winter (5 hours). That's enough for real-time collaboration on most days without asking anyone to work through the night.

3. Fully aligned to US hours

The hire works your business day in full. For an Eastern team working 9 to 5, that's 15:00 to 23:00 in South Africa in summer and 16:00 to 00:00 in winter. It's doable, and some people prefer evening schedules, but it's a real lifestyle commitment. Make it part of the role from day one, not something you ask for later.

As our locations page puts it, evening and weekend schedules can be set up as full-time roles. The key is that both sides agree on the hours before anyone signs.

The two weekends a year when everything moves

This is the detail that catches teams out. Because South Africa doesn't change its clocks, every US daylight-saving change shifts your shared hours by one hour.

Picture a recurring 9:00 a.m. Eastern standup:

  1. 1

    In summer, it's at 15:00 in South Africa.

  2. 2

    After the US clocks go back in November, it's at 16:00.

  3. 3

    After they go forward in March, it's back to 15:00.

So you need to decide up front: does the hire's schedule follow your clock or theirs?

Follow the US clock

The hire's local hours move by an hour twice a year, and your meetings stay put. This is usually the simpler option for meetings.

Follow the South African clock

The hire's day stays fixed, and your shared window moves by an hour. Your meetings will need to move too.

Either is fine. The problems come from not deciding. Two habits help:

  • Set recurring meetings in one named time zone, so calendar apps handle the change for you.
  • Put the next change dates in the team calendar. For 2026 and 2027, those are November 1, 2026, March 14, 2027 and November 7, 2027.

Don't forget public holidays

Time zones aren't the only calendar difference. South Africa has 12 public holidays, set by the Public Holidays Act. Most don't line up with US holidays. Freedom Day (April 27), Heritage Day (September 24) and the Day of Reconciliation (December 16) are a few examples. Under the Act, when a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday after it is also a holiday.

US holidays like Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July aren't holidays in South Africa.

The simple fix is to agree which holiday calendar the role follows, or how the two will be combined, and write it down. If the role covers customer-facing hours, also agree who covers on the days one side is off.

What to put in your brief

You don't need a separate document for this. It belongs in the role brief, alongside the skills and the test. Our one-page hiring framework has a place for it. Cover these points:

  1. 1

    Working hours

    , written in both time zones. For example: "12:00–21:00 SAST (6:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. ET in summer)."

  2. 2

    Core overlap window

    The hours when the hire must be reachable in real time, and what they're for (standups, customer calls, calendar changes).

  3. 3

    Which clock the schedule follows

    when US daylight saving changes.

  4. 4

    Holiday calendar

    Whose public holidays the role observes, and how cover works.

  5. 5

    Response expectations outside the overlap

    For example, "messages answered by the start of your next working day."

When we run a search, the hours and overlap are settled before it starts, so candidates only say yes to a schedule they can actually keep. If a role needs a schedule that isn't a good fit for South Africa, our location line is simple: South Africa first, anywhere when the role needs it.

Make the shared hours count

Overlap is valuable, so don't spend all of it on status updates. A few habits help:

Use shared hours for decisions, unblocking and anything that needs back-and-forth.

Move routine updates to writing. A short end-of-day note from your hire is often more useful than a call.

Keep a shared task list that both sides can update without waiting for the other.

Protect the window. If your calendar fills up, your hire's best hours of access go with it.

Done well, a time difference stops being a hurdle and starts working in your favor: work moves forward while you're offline.

Hiring for a role that needs US hours?

Tell us about the role and the hours you need. We'll talk through what schedule makes sense and how a search would work. Book a call, or read how it works first.

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