How do you handle a new boss that is in the west coast, working PST hours but the company you are working for is in the East coast and you are also EST working EST hours?
I want to set my boundaries early so my boss understands that last minute check-ins at 5pm or later is not going be sufficient enough time for me to handle any last minute issues. I’m not going to be working nights while they work because it’s convenient for them. How do I tackle this topic delicately in our first one on one?

Make sure you have your working hours set in outlook so that it’s obvious to your boss if they try to schedule a meeting.

If a meeting is scheduled, just decline and politely ask if it can be rescheduled since your day ends at 5pm est/2pm pst.

If boss sends a request at the end of your day, just respond to acknowledge receipt and advise that you’ll review it first thing the next day.

Don’t apologize for working your assigned hours. If boss isn’t used to working with an east coast company, it may just take a few reminders for them to adjust.

Block your calendar after 4:30. If it was me I would not bring it up in the first one-on-one as it sets the tone as negative and she might not be planning to ever try and make you work late. If it becomes an issue later you can address it.

Proactive conversation! Set up time to chat and present this as proactive problem solving. “I know we are in different time zones, so I was thinking through how we can work together most effectively and came up with a few ideas that will hopefully position me to be as valuable as possible to you despite the time change.”

One of your suggestions can then be checking at 2 pm ET — gives them time to get their day underway while still leaving you time to address anything that needs to be tacked before EOD.

Also, with any given task that they frame as urgent, always ask “does it work for me to have this in your inbox by 9am PT tomorrow? The time difference can work to your advantage. Thought you may not want to work evenings, you get several of hours of work under your belt before they log on.

Lastly, ask them to confirm their hours. If your team is on ET, it’s possible they are observing ET hours for work purposes… you never know.

Clarify during the convo that though you’re a team player who will come through for anything urgent, it’s important to you to maintain your hours (and specify what those are), and ask if they have any concerns with that/think it’s realistic.

I find it’s best to be direct and have the convos up front, but in a way that doesn’t come across as defensive or pushing back.

You got this! Boundaries are so important…

I am in the UK and my boss is MT! That is a significant time difference and I am never expected to work late but things do occasionally come up and I get comp time for my flexibility. You have to establish fair and reasonable boundaries - especially if you have kids or family obligations.

Agree with other advice given here. Bring it up ASAP and be direct. Personally, I would not worry about being delicate and risk not being taken seriously. Let your boss know the boundaries in form of a statement, not question. Luckily you have some leverage since most of the company is on your time zone.

I also agree with making sure your calendar is blocked.

As someone who worked for years in a global organization, time zone sensitivity was required. Because your company is based in the East Coast, the East Coast time zone is the time zone that guides all business scheduling.

Anyone working remotely should remember this. Now, from time to time it's in an employee's best interests to consider the time zone of those with whom they work and accommodate their time zone especially if the employee is a leader in the organization.

There may be times you would want to work occassionally outside of your time zone such as a key deliverable needed. I am assuming you are an exempt employee that would be working longer than a 9 to 5 day anyway on occasion, so accommodating your West
Coast based boss at reasonable hours say 6 or 7 pm your time once in a while shoukd be OK with you.


A tactful discussion with your boss to request scheduling meetings during the East Coast business hours established in your company policy manual should be sufficient.

Also, consider placing a note under your work email signature line that says something to the effect of "Given the different time zones our staff works in around the country, it is understood that your working hours may be different from mine. It is not expected that you reply to my correspondence outside of the working hours in your time zone."

This is tough and depends on a lot of variables.

While I agree that if the company is working EST hours, your boss should be too regardless of their location. One can also argue that if they need you to work PST hours, you should follow suit.

Does your company have a policy on working hours for folks outside of the EST time zone?
Are you an exempt or non-exempt employee?

I had that same situation. I put all meetings as a recurring check in. Depending on how often you check in. I was consulting but you can still set boundaries especially in the beginning. Even if you say school or learning Pilates. I was on EST hours but our brand teams were in California.

We are an east coast time zone company and anyone hired remote in another time zone is told they must work on east coast time. Guessing you work somewhere with multiple time zones. Work on boundary setting.

You indicate this is a new boss. Does this mean he is new to this role or you are new to the company? If he is new to the role, discuss how the EST team worked with the PT team in the past and that will be the model going forward. If you are new to the role, ask coworkers about the expectations from their experience and then follow the great suggestions below and set boundaries.