Workweeks & holidays
Not every office works Monday to Friday
Sunday–Thursday weeks, 4-day weeks, and office holidays are normal on global teams. Most calendars still pretend everyone shares the same weekend — then you book a 'quick sync' and three people get a Friday-night invite.
Published 23 October 2026
The Friday that isn't a Friday everywhere
Picture a team with New York, London, Dubai, Riyadh, Bengaluru, and Sydney. On a Friday in New York, London, and Dubai, people are at work. In Riyadh, Friday is already weekend on a Sunday–Thursday schedule. In Sydney, a 4-day week may have ended on Thursday. In Bengaluru, the office might be closed for a local holiday.
A calendar invite titled "Friday sync" still looks fine to the organiser. Half the invitees are off. Nobody lied — the tool just assumed a Western Monday–Friday week.
What actually differs by office
Three settings, not one global default.
- Workdays — any mix of Sun–Sat. Gulf government and many private offices still use Sunday–Thursday; some teams run four-day weeks.
- Working hours — 9–5, 9:30–18:30, night shifts that cross midnight. Status follows the local clock, not a single HQ zone.
- Holidays — named office-closed days. They override working hours for that local date so the live view and planner do not treat the office as free.
How to schedule without guessing
Start from who is actually working that day, not from the organiser's weekend. If three of six offices are off, plan with the three who are on — or move the meeting to a day when more cities share a workday.
In the meeting planner, weekends and holidays are coloured and named ("Weekend", "Holiday · Office closed"). Suggestions ignore offices that are off and pick the fairest slot among the rest, with a short note explaining who was skipped and why.
A practical checklist for managers
- Store each office's workdays and hours once — do not rebuild them in every calendar invite.
- Add known office holidays at the start of the year; revisit moving festivals before the month they fall in.
- When overlap is thin, rotate who joins early or late instead of locking the same region into late calls.
- Write times in every zone on the invite (e.g. 10:00 ET / 15:00 UK / 20:30 IST) so DST weeks do not silently shift one side.
- Keep a live view on the wiki or office TV so "is Bengaluru still online?" is answered before Slack — see the office TV world clock guide.
Try it with your cities
Add Riyadh on Sunday–Thursday, Sydney on a 4-day week, and a Bengaluru holiday for a closed day. Open the meeting planner for that Friday: purple weekend bars and pink holiday bars make the gap obvious, and the best-time pick only counts offices that are working.
Free, no sign-up — your team lives in the link you share.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to common questions. Can't find what you're looking for? Contact us anytime.
Does Is My Team Working support Sunday–Thursday workweeks?Yes. Each city on your team has its own working days. Set Riyadh or Dubai to Sunday–Thursday and Friday shows as weekend for that office only.
Can I mark a one-off office holiday?Yes. Add a holiday date (and optional name) on a city. That day shows as holiday in the timeline and the meeting planner skips it when scoring times. Matching by month and day means a fixed date like 25 December can return every year; moving holidays such as Diwali need an update.
What about 4-day workweeks?Pick any mix of days — for example Monday–Thursday. Friday then counts as weekend for that office, so planners and live status stay honest.
More guides
See who's working on your team now
Add cities once. Custom workweeks, holidays, and daylight saving are handled per office.