Business Hours Around the World: A Global Scheduling Reference

Standard business hours in the US and Canada are 9 AM–5 PM local time, Monday to Friday. However, the US spans six time zones (Hawaii to Eastern), so the same 9 AM–5 PM day runs from 14:00 to 22:00 UTC on the East Coast in winter and from 17:00 to 01:00 UTC on the West Coast. Tech companies on the West Coast (Pacific Time) often run an informal 10 AM–6 PM culture. East Coast financial and legal firms tend toward earlier starts (8 AM).

Most of Western Europe works 8 AM–5 PM or 9 AM–6 PM, Monday to Friday, with an hour-long lunch break. Southern European countries (Spain, Italy, Greece) have traditionally observed a longer midday break, though this is declining in urban business settings. Germany and Switzerland are known for punctual early starts — 8 AM is common. The UK leans toward a 9-to-5:30 culture.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman operate on a Sunday–Thursday work week, with Friday and Saturday as the weekend, while the UAE moved its federal work week to Monday–Friday in 2022. Standard hours are 8 AM–5 PM or 9 AM–6 PM local time. This is a critical scheduling consideration — a Monday meeting that includes Riyadh participants needs to account for their Sunday being a working day and their Friday being a day off.

India's business hours are typically 9:30 AM–6:30 PM IST (UTC+5:30); the working week varies by employer, and some work Saturdays. Southeast Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand) generally follow a 9 AM–6 PM Monday–Friday pattern. China works 9 AM–6 PM Monday–Friday, though overtime culture is prevalent in the tech sector.

Japan and South Korea are known for long working hours — official hours are 9 AM–6 PM, but actual working culture often extends well beyond that. Meetings are rarely scheduled early morning or late evening in local time. Both countries observe a Monday–Friday work week. Japan does not observe DST.

Australia operates 9 AM–5 PM Monday–Friday, but spans three main time zones: AEST (UTC+10), ACST (UTC+9:30), and AWST (UTC+8). Sydney and Melbourne are AEST; Adelaide is ACST; Perth is AWST. Australia also observes DST in its eastern states (but not Queensland or Western Australia), which adds scheduling complexity from October to April.

The clock is only half of a business-hours question; the calendar is the other half. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman work Sunday to Thursday. The United Arab Emirates moved its federal working week to Monday through Friday in 2022, with a shortened Friday. Israel also works Sunday to Thursday with a short Friday. In much of Europe, North America, and Asia the week runs Monday to Friday, although some businesses in India and parts of the Middle East and Southeast Asia keep a half day on Saturday. When you schedule with a colleague in another region, confirm their actual working days rather than assuming they match yours.

Some holidays stop business across an entire region for days at a time, and they do not appear on a calendar built around your own country's holidays.

• Lunar New Year closes offices in China, Vietnam, and other parts of East and Southeast Asia, often for a week or more.
• Golden Week in Japan falls between late April and early May.
• Diwali, celebrated across India, follows a lunar calendar and lands between October and November.
• Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha follow the Islamic lunar calendar, so they arrive about ten or eleven days earlier each year.
• Christmas and New Year reduce activity across Europe and the Americas, and August is a common holiday month in parts of Southern Europe.
• Carnival in Brazil, Chuseok in Korea, and the long Australian summer break each create their own quiet periods.

Checking a holiday list before you book a deadline costs a minute and can save a missed delivery.

Even on a normal working day, the shape of the day differs. In many Muslim-majority countries, Friday midday prayers make late morning to mid-afternoon on Friday a poor time for meetings. In Spain and parts of Latin America, lunch is later and longer than in Northern Europe, and the working day can stretch into the evening. In Japan and South Korea, early mornings are typically quiet while evenings often run long. These are patterns, not rules. Treat them as prompts to ask a colleague what works for them rather than as assumptions to schedule around.

Pin everyone's city in ZoneMeets and drag the slider to find the hours when most people are in business time. Check the date against each person's working days and local holidays, since both are easy to miss. Propose two options rather than one, so the recipient can choose the time that fits their day. Send the invite with the time in your own named time zone and in UTC. Finally, ask the most distant attendee whether the slot is actually workable, because they are the one who knows how their day really runs.