I work for a startup with offices in Milan, London and Singapore. Setting up calls with everyone is a nightmare because when it's morning for me it's evening for the others. Are there any tools that help find decent times so nobody's always the one getting screwed over?
The most practical solution is to use a tool that visually shows time zones: Calendly, World Time Buddy, or even just Google Calendar with overlaid time zones lets you immediately see which time windows work decently for everyone. Milan is UTC+1 (or +2 in summer), London UTC+0 (+1), Singapore UTC+8, so the difference is pretty significant. Your sweet spot is probably between 8-10 AM Milan time (which would be 6-8 PM in Singapore, still during work hours) or 5-6 PM your time (which becomes early morning in Singapore, like 1-2 AM but at least it's not full working day). The key is not expecting all time slots to be perfect: accept that Singapore and London will never be at their best at the same time as Milan.
Beyond the tool for finding the time, think about rotating recurring meetings. If the weekly standup is always at 8 AM your time, Singapore colleagues are sacrificing themselves every time. If you alternate every month or every quarter, the burden gets spread out. For urgent calls or small groups, async communication works better: recorded messages on Loom, written updates, shared documents. Cut down on meetings that require "everyone at once": it's not efficient and it wears out whoever's always in a terrible time slot.
Another thing that works well is setting fixed times and sticking to them. If you say "Tuesday at 9 AM Milan time" it becomes routine, people know what to expect. And let whoever's in awful time slots participate async: record the call, share written notes, let them comment afterwards. Not everyone needs to be live at the same time.
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