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Should holiday email be deleted?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#61

Post by forca »

mseebach wrote: post #60
gizmo686 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is likely part of the perceived problem, but seems lacking. When the wife stayed home to manage the family, we had the husband working 40 hour weeks. Now, the gender equalization is not taking the form of the 40 hours being shared between the spouses, but rather the 80 hours shared between them.

There is overhead on jobs. Unless performing the most simple mind numbing factory assembly line work, 2 x 20hrs Then there coordination overhead in the family - even if the two parents work 20 hours each, it's unlikely that it's exactly divided so one is always home. Child care costs a lot of money. Eating out costs money. But the most important reason: People still want careers and a career on half the working time…

My wife and I worked out a plan: we moved very close to her parents who agreed to watch our children for three days a week. I work M-F days only, no nights, no weekends. My wife works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Together we make enough to pays the bills, save a little, and have a bit of fun. The children are taken care of first and foremost.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice to make do for your family by moving, whatever. It's always better to sacrifice money than time from your children. As long as you are making it and saving a little and have a bit for holidays, nothing else really matters. Getting rich should never be the goal.

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#62

Post by Roboprog »

Despite the few odd drawbacks to this approach mentioned elsewhere here, I think I speak for most of us who have worked in a corporate office when I say...

FxxK YEAH!!!

Give the surplus email the "FAX machine" treatment! ("Office Space" reference)

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#63

Post by Nursie »

freejack wrote: post #58
Nursie wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> bad practices, i.e. if you want work life balance, don't check your email when you aren't in the office. Manage your co-workers expectations that you won't be replying when you aren't on the clock, don't work for a boss that has the expectation that you are functionally on-call at times when you should be with your family and friends. >> Corporate policy along the lines of "delete email while you are on vacation".…

No, we're on the same page. My point is that you should never receive most of those email in the first place. If they don't get sent (because there is a functional email culture in the workplace) then there's no need for dysfunctional policy to remedy the issue.

Fair enough, and yes there is a lot of unnecessary email sent.

However I do think there are perfectly legit emails, particularly in a large organisation, that have a very limited shelf-life and qualify for both should-be-sent and should-be-auto-trashed.

Examples - "Are you still heading up that project?" "Hey, I have this tech issue, can you help?". In both of these cases a quick reply would be useful, but in a week's time it's likely the issue has gone away or the person is now so stuck they'll remind you about it.

I guess you could argue that email is not the appropriate comms method for those questions...

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#64

Post by Roboprog »

chollida1 wrote: post #6
forca wrote: post #5

I agree with deleting the emails. The US is woefully behind Europe in this regard. I would like to see a French-style work week, with the added goodness of France's recent email/phone call law forbidding employers from contacting employees after a certain time. I would like, at the very least, to see a federal law forbidding more than 40 hours max. The world has really deteriorated in regard to family life since the…

> I would like, at the very least, to see a federal law forbidding more than 40 hours max This seems like a nice sentiment but it comes across and being out of touch with the general public. Many, people need to work more than 40 hours, pretty much anyone who works for an hourly wage that is around the minimum wage level, a week just to make ends meet. If your law is enacted you've just doomed a non negligible portio…

Alas, this isn't a logic problem, it's a values problem.

* I've been trained by my fascist, FOX news, libertarian upbringing that business comes first, even if it subjects 99.99% of the population to utter misery, sickness and death.

* I've been trained by my socialist, marxist, tree-hugger upbringing that people come first^H^H^H^H second (after seals and endangered fungi), even if everyone goes bankrupt and starves and our enemies overthrow and kill us.

Yeah, the "other guy's" values look pretty stupid, don't they? (pick which ever "other guy" suits your fancy)

Even if the other guy's values aren't a caricature, it's still hard to agree on what should be the outcome.

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#65

Post by MadManE »

forca wrote: post #61
mseebach wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is overhead on jobs. Unless performing the most simple mind numbing factory assembly line work, 2 x 20hrs Then there coordination overhead in the family - even if the two parents work 20 hours each, it's unlikely that it's exactly divided so one is always home. Child care costs a lot of money. Eating out costs money. But the most important reason: People still want careers and a career on half the working time…

My wife and I worked out a plan: we moved very close to her parents who agreed to watch our children for three days a week. I work M-F days only, no nights, no weekends. My wife works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Together we make enough to pays the bills, save a little, and have a bit of fun. The children are taken care of first and foremost. Sometimes you have to sacrifice to make do for your family by moving, wha…

This strikes me as a justification for your lifestyle rather than a solid argument that can convince other people. There's nothing wrong with you living your life the way you want, but saying "Getting rich should never be the goal." is just plain wrong for some people.

Your tone seems to me like you once wanted to be rich, but have since given up and are now trying to convince others that they should just give up too.

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#66

Post by MadManE »

lmm wrote: post #49
acheron wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I in fact do work 75% time for 75% salary, and somehow I managed to work it out as a mutually voluntary arrangement with my employer without using the coercive power of the State.

Good for you, but that requires an unusually enlightened employer. There were some people who managed to arrange safe jobs in the pre-OHSA days. Doesn't mean government intervention wasn't necessary.

Government intervention is only required when "The People" want something, but won't stand up for themselves to get it.

So instead they get their bully friend to force others to comply with their wishes.

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#67

Post by dragonwriter »

MadManE wrote: post #66
lmm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for you, but that requires an unusually enlightened employer. There were some people who managed to arrange safe jobs in the pre-OHSA days. Doesn't mean government intervention wasn't necessary.

Government intervention is only required when "The People" want something, but won't stand up for themselves to get it. So instead they get their bully friend to force others to comply with their wishes.

The "government" doesn't exist independently of the people (even when it fails to represent them equally, either through unequal interest or unequal capacity to exert influence.) It is a mechanism through which the people "stand up for themselves to get" things that they want.

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#69

Post by MadManE »

dragonwriter wrote: post #67
MadManE wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government intervention is only required when "The People" want something, but won't stand up for themselves to get it. So instead they get their bully friend to force others to comply with their wishes.

The "government" doesn't exist independently of the people (even when it fails to represent them equally, either through unequal interest or unequal capacity to exert influence.) It is a mechanism through which the people "stand up for themselves to get" things that they want.

Any kind of government is a beast that feeds on the fears of the weak and the abilities of the strong. Pretending that it is simply a machine that produces an output based on the input signal of the voters is disingenuous.

Re: Should holiday email be deleted?

#70

Post by [deleted] »

MadManE wrote: post #65
forca wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I worked out a plan: we moved very close to her parents who agreed to watch our children for three days a week. I work M-F days only, no nights, no weekends. My wife works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Together we make enough to pays the bills, save a little, and have a bit of fun. The children are taken care of first and foremost. Sometimes you have to sacrifice to make do for your family by moving, wha…

This strikes me as a justification for your lifestyle rather than a solid argument that can convince other people. There's nothing wrong with you living your life the way you want, but saying "Getting rich should never be the goal." is just plain wrong for some people. Your tone seems to me like you once wanted to be rich, but have since given up and are now trying to convince others that they should just give up too…

[deleted]
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