Sydney, London, New York: how to run one team across three time zones (2026-27 overlap tables)

The short answer

London and New York share three to four working hours all year. Sydney shares almost none with either, and the time differences change six times a year, because Australia changes its clocks in the opposite season to the UK and the US, and the three countries change on different Sundays.

The least-bad times to meet, by season. "Next day" and "previous day" are relative to the first city named.

For one to two weeks in March and again around the end of October, London and New York are only 4 hours apart, and they share four working hours: London 13:00-17:00 = New York 9:00-13:00. The full table below shows every period.

A call with all three cities always lands outside someone's working day. Which city carries it flips with the seasons, so a fair rotation has to change twice a year. There is a worked rota further down.

Why the overlap moves: every offset to the end of 2027

Each country sets its own rule:

• UK: clocks go forward 1 hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March and back 1 hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October. GOV.UK lists 29 March and 25 October for 2026, and 28 March and 31 October for 2027 [1].
• Sydney: NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT use daylight saving; Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not. NSW lists the start as 2am on Sunday 4 October 2026 and the end as 3am on Sunday 4 April 2027 [2]. The NSW page does not list the next start yet. Sunday 3 October 2027 follows the rule NSW shares with the ACT, written into the ACT's law: from 2am on the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in the following April [3]. The IANA time zone database gives the same date.
• US: daylight saving time starts at 2am local time on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2am on the first Sunday in November, under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. NIST lists 8 March to 1 November for 2026 [4], which makes 2027's dates 14 March and 7 November. Hawaii, most of Arizona and the US territories do not use it.

Two practical notes:

• Every change in this period happens at a weekend in all three cities. Sydney's changes happen early on a Sunday morning, which is still Saturday in London and New York. So each period starts with a full working week, and you only need to check the first Monday after each change.
• Calendar software handles the change, people don't. A recurring meeting set in one city's time moves by an hour for the other two cities on the dates above. Check every recurring cross-city meeting in the week after each change.

Choosing a core overlap, and when not to have one

A core overlap is a block of hours when everyone is expected to be reachable. It works well for London and New York: London 14:00-17:00 and New York 9:00-12:00 sit inside a normal day in both cities all year.

For Sydney, a core overlap with London or New York means asking someone to work early or late every day, which is neither fair nor, in Australia, something you can simply require (see the law section below). Instead:

• Agree "edge hours" for specific days, not every day. For example, the Sydney lead starts at 7:00 on Tuesdays for the New York call and finishes early that day.
• Use London as the bridge. Sydney's late afternoon meets London's early morning from April to early October, and London's afternoon meets New York's morning all year. A London lead can carry decisions between the two.
• Make written updates the default. Most coordination between Sydney and New York should not need a meeting at all.

Handoffs that work

When work moves between cities overnight, the handover note is the meeting. A good one takes five minutes to write and covers:

1. What changed today: links to the tickets, commits or files, not a description of them.
2. What is blocked, and on whom.
3. Decisions needed, with a default you will act on if nobody answers by a set time.
4. Anything the client said that the next person needs to know.
5. Who owns it now. One named person per time zone.

Some other habits that save a day of waiting:

• Short recorded walkthroughs of a design or a bug beat a long written explanation, and the next city can watch them at 9:00.
• A decision log per client or project, so nobody has to wait for the person who was in the room.
• Put the city in the time: "by 17:00 Sydney time Tuesday", never "by end of day".

Rotating the meeting pain fairly

To compare slots, we count how many hours outside 9:00-17:00 a one-hour call falls for each city. A call at 7:00 costs 2; a call at 20:00 costs 4 (it runs to 21:00, four hours past 17:00).

The pattern flips with the seasons. From November to March the gentlest slots put Sydney early and London late, and New York is in its afternoon. From April to September the gentlest slots put Sydney late and New York early, and London is in the middle of its day.

Worked rota: a weekly call, November 2026 to January 2027

Alternate two slots, week by week:

• Week A: Sydney 8:00 Tuesday = London 21:00 Monday = New York 16:00 Monday (1 / 5 / 0).
• Week B: Sydney 21:00 Tuesday = London 10:00 Tuesday = New York 5:00 Tuesday (5 / 0 / 4).

Over 12 weeks, six of each, the hours outside 9:00-17:00 add up to Sydney 36, London 30, New York 24. A three-slot rotation that adds Sydney 6:00 / London 19:00 / New York 14:00 comes out at Sydney 36, London 32 and New York 16, which is less even. Skip the weeks of 21 and 28 December: 25 December is a holiday in all three cities, and 28 December in Sydney and London.

If 5:00 in New York is a non-starter, and for most people it is, there is no fair weekly three-way slot. Then:

• Hold the three-way call fortnightly or monthly, and keep weekly coordination to two-city calls plus written updates.
• Keep it short, with a written agenda and decisions recorded, so people outside their day can leave on time.
• Record it for whoever is asleep, with their agreement, and take their questions in writing beforehand.
• Give the time back. Someone who takes a 21:00 call should be able to start late the next day.

After-hours contact and the law

Meetings outside someone's working day are not only a fairness question.

• Australia: employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable, including contact from clients and other third parties. It has applied since 26 August 2024 for employers with 15 or more employees, and since 26 August 2025 for small business employers (fewer than 15 employees) [11]. Agree early or late calls in advance as part of someone's working hours.
• UK: workers have the right to 11 hours' rest between working days and either 24 hours without work each week or 48 hours each fortnight [12], and cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average unless they opt out [13]. A call that ends at 22:00 leaves exactly 11 hours before a 9:00 start, so an earlier start the next morning would cut into that rest, unless an exception applies.
• US: for non-exempt staff, "work not requested but suffered or permitted to be performed is work time that must be paid for by the employer" [14]. Answering messages in the evening can be paid working time.

This is a summary, not legal advice. Check your awards, agreements and contracts.

Public holidays across three countries

What each country requires

• Australia: all employees have a right to be absent from work on a public holiday. An employer can ask someone to work one, but the request has to be reasonable, and the employee can refuse on reasonable grounds [15]. An employee is entitled to the public holidays where they are based for work, not where they happen to be working that day [8].
• UK: bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. An employer can count them towards the 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday [9].
• US: federal law does not require payment for time not worked, including federal holidays; holidays are a matter of agreement between employer and employee [10]. The federal holiday list is set for federal employees [7], so private employers choose which days to give.

Policy options

• Local holidays only: each person gets their own location's holidays. Simple and usually what the law expects, but the number of days off differs between offices.
• Local holidays plus a floating pool: top everyone up to the same total with floating days they choose. Fairer when offices differ by several days.
• Swaps: let people work a local holiday and take another day instead, where the law and their contract allow it.
• Client cover: for each holiday, decide in advance who covers clients in the cities that are working.

Weekdays when at least one office is closed, October 2026 to December 2027

Sydney uses NSW statewide holidays [5], London uses England and Wales bank holidays [6], and New York uses US federal holidays [7]. Weekend holidays are left out; where a holiday falls at a weekend, the weekday it moves to is listed.

Two weeks stand out. Easter 2027 closes Sydney and London on Friday 26 March and Monday 29 March while New York works, over the same weekend that London's clocks go forward. At Christmas 2027, New York is closed on Friday 24 December and Friday 31 December, while Sydney and London are closed on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December.

For other Australian states, Scotland, Northern Ireland, long weekends and the best days to book leave, use the 2027 leave planner.

Writing time zones into everyday tools

• Show each person's local time next to their name in chat or in your team directory, so nobody has to work it out.
• Schedule messages for the recipient's morning instead of sending at 23:00 your time. The message arrives when they start, and nobody feels they should reply at night.
• Set working hours in your calendar, so invitations outside them are visible before they are sent.
• Name the time zone in every deadline and in the title of recurring cross-city meetings.
• Hold the holiday list for all three offices in the same place as leave, so a project plan shows who is away.