The After-Work Email Quandry
theatlantic.com
The After-Work Email Quandry
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#2I know it's not healthy (in terms of switching off from work) - but I do generally enjoy getting emails - receiving one more often than not will be a reply I've been waiting for, or even better, sometimes new opportunities/or customers I like catching up. The association with work makes it seem bad, but I think a nice email, regardless of time received is still a nice thing
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#3I can remember one day rate contract I was arranging, where all the replies from the manager appeared to be happening after 6-7pm at night and became slightly concerned that their idea of a day was not the normal 9-5ish. Turns out he answered most emails late evening.
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#4I know it's not healthy (in terms of switching off from work) - but I do generally enjoy getting emails - receiving one more often than not will be a reply I've been waiting for, or even better, sometimes new opportunities/or customers I like catching up. The association with work makes it seem bad, but I think a nice email, regardless of time received is still a nice thing
But how to set up your inbox in such a way that it only allows reception of nice emails after work time?
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#5> Why do we find ourselves reading emails during vacation or sick days, even when we don't have to?
Because we fear to get sacked?
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#6I can remember one day rate contract I was arranging, where all the replies from the manager appeared to be happening after 6-7pm at night and became slightly concerned that their idea of a day was not the normal 9-5ish. Turns out he answered most emails late evening.
I had a new director starting a few years ago when my kids were 1 & 3. Literally the first email I sent to him was at 11 PM the evening before his first day, so I started with, "Don't pay any attention to the time of this email. I'm sending it now because the kids are asleep and I'm still awake; I have no expectations that you'll be online answering emails all hours of the day."
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#7> there's at least some anecdotal evidence that workers are not always working at work
This made me go look up whether hypobole (dramatic understatement) is a word yet.
I email after hours and on weekends/PTO voluntarily and I do rather enjoy it. I certainly enjoy it more than coming back to 1000 emails to deal with on my first day back.
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#8I know it isn't the core of the article, but complaining about an out of office message is missing the point of out of office messages. They do not really mean that I won't see your email for a week. But they do mean that if you just sent me an urgent problem, which normally would invoke an immediate response, you won't get that response. It lets people know that the normal communication patterns will differ, and leaves it up to them to decide whether they need to contact someone other than me.
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#9I check (and sometimes respond to) business email during off hours, out of curiosity. Also, some of our customers and partners are in very different time zones, and it speeds things up to answer a question or open a ticket to solve a problem immediately rather than waiting 12 hours. My manager and I are both a little fanatical that way. It's not a requirement of the job but it does distinguish our lean, efficient little intrapreneurial unit from the stodgy, slow responsiveness of the rest of the company.
Re: The After-Work Email Quandry
#10> Why do we find ourselves reading emails during vacation or sick days, even when we don't have to? Because we fear to get sacked?
I think it's way more than that. There's a number of ways to motivate people, such as involving them in the team mission and empowering them, compensation, and recognition. Motivated people will do what it takes, including thinking about work off hours.