I got in a little play fight with my gf today. We live on the east coast and she has a competition trip in CA this week.

We both agree that if it is 3pm here, it’s 12pm in cali.

Now, I say that means cali is 3 hours BEHIND eastern standard. She acknowledged that we get New Year’s before they do (my argument), but cali is 3 hours earlier… wut.....? she must be talking about moving the clock BACK, hence BEHIND.

Is there like an official way to say it? Her whole family says it that way too. I just think that’s confusing.

I use both depending on the context

Pacific Time Zone is three hours earlier than Eastern, which means Cali time is behind Eastern.

TL; DR: You're both right. You are arguing about two different accurate ways to say the same thing. Seriously.

CA is always 3 hours behind you, unless your in AZ. In that case CA is either 1 hour behind or the same time as AZ depending on day light savings, which AZ does not have.