Answering work emails on the weekend

[JP4CY]

I am jealous of most of you. I did not and do not have that opportunity. Seven days a week. I tried to keep it to 1-2 hours on Sunday. Saturday 2-3 hours would be good. Return texts and emails mon-fri until 10 pm.

This culture and the way I manage my career are my choice - nobody made me do this.

Let the name calling and dumb ratings begin.

Everyone's job, family, and life are different. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this thread. Assuming people are going to call you a name or dumb your post is interesting though.

 

[JP4CY]

I answer emails all weekend as time allows. If it's something financial or labor/employee wise, I'll wait on reading the attachment until Monday.

 

[Gonzo]

I agree. But it's also going to depend on your personal definition of success.

In the past, I would have said there's no way I wouldn't want the next promotion. But here I am. Now I think there's no way I want the next level up

If you truly want to be a VP at a Fortune 100 company.... There isn't going to be much down time.

If you're like me and are cool with middle management. Then weekend away.

Agree. That's not for everyone, personal definitions of "success" vary.

 

[JP4CY]

I'm afraid, nowadays, my banhammer mostly sits in the corner, collecting dust. All of the blood stains are brown with age. Oh, but how I used to weild it, though! How it rocketed through cyberspace, doling out mighty cardinal and gold justice on the heathens and Hawkeyes! If I close my eyes I can still hear them pleading for mercy. A mercy that never came. Sometimes I still pick it up, and don the old executioners hood, that Chris Williams sent all of the mods for Christmas that one year. But it isn't the same as it used to be.

Perhaps banning is a young man's game? I've certainly got a lot more salt and not as much pepper in my beard than I did in the old days. Maybe that's just the way of things. You can beat every enemy they put in front of you, but in the end, the only opponent that matters is the one that greets you when you look in the mirror. And it seems that sad-eyed scarecrow has had the better of me for a while now.

@Angie is Janny is Nick Fury?

 

[CYdTracked]

One of the best things my company ever did to me was cancel my company iPhone a couple years ago as part of a cost savings initiative. Their "replacement solution" was I can choose to download an app and use my personal phone for company emails and mobile phone calls. I said no thanks, I am not using up data on a phone plan I pay for and I am not giving out my personal number for business reasons either. It has created a few inconveniences at times but I figure if it's that important they can issue me a company phone again.

Looking back now I am glad they canceled it as it gave me a reason not to check work email after my workday was over and I am a lot less stressed out and worry less about what I have to deal with the next day when I am able to just disconnect from work entirely when I go home and not know what is going on after hours or first thing in the morning before I leave for work. I have remote access but I don't use it after hours and I don't even bring my work computer home with me unless I know there is a chance I may need to work from home for something. I sleep better and wake up refreshed not having work on my mind as much since I don't have the temptation of checking work email just a few phone taps away in my pocket.

Working nearly 20 years in a corporate environment has basically hardened me to not let work consume or run my life. Especially now with kids, my personal life is my priority and I know it doesn't matter if I need to take some time off during a busy time or I feel obligated to put in extra hours because the bottom line is we are all just another number in the employee database that can be replaced at any given moment. I don't want to miss out on the better things in life and the longer I have worked the more I have learned not to sacrifice your personal life just to please corporate bosses.

 

[Entropy]

If it's during the semester, yes.
My students are working on material all the time.
Once the semester is over, I am far less engaged. Like the lab better be on fire if you need me to respond.

 

[cowgirl836]

The work will always be there and I'm not saving lives so anymore it's a no. I'd check earlier on in my career but I've learned going above and beyond gets you more work and no $$$ so I'll spend the time doing things I enjoy or personal chores. Work is greedy and will continue to take as much as you give. Boundaries are my friend.

 

[MisterO]

I generally don’t respond on weekends if it’s a client or one of my employees. If it’s one of my managers, I will respond because they seldom contact me unless it’s something important.

5-10 years ago, I responded to everything, all the time…I’ve either gotten better at my job or I don’t care quite as much as I used to, I’m not real sure.

 

[AgronAlum]

The work will always be there and I'm not saving lives so anymore it's a no. I'd check earlier on in my career but I've learned going above and beyond gets you more work and no $$$ so I'll spend the time doing things I enjoy or personal chores. Work is greedy and will continue to take as much as you give. Boundaries are my friend.

This is the right answer and fits me to a T. My kids have become a priority I didn’t have early in my career. I’d have weeks straight where I never saw my young kids awake. I’ve worked with people who found a point of pride in working so much they didn’t see their kids grow up.

I feel like the switch in mentality is forcing employers to change, which is a great thing for everyone going forward.

 

[Pope]

I am jealous of most of you. I did not and do not have that opportunity. Seven days a week. I tried to keep it to 1-2 hours on Sunday. Saturday 2-3 hours would be good. Return texts and emails mon-fri until 10 pm.

This culture and the way I manage my career are my choice - nobody made me do this.

Let the name calling and dumb ratings begin.

I hear you. I recently chose early retirement, but I spent my whole career working well beyond a 40 hr work week.

Fortunately, I enjoyed my job for the most part, so that made it so much easier. While my work ethic costed me some family time, it was always recognized by those above me and I was promoted throughout my career, so I was able to provide for my family throughout and I was able to retire comfortably recently while I'm relatively young and healthy. Now I spend a ton of time with my grandkids.

I know our younger staff was critical of my long hours behind my back. They liked to say they worked smarter, not harder, although I couldn't help but feel like they were rationalizing. And I always shook my head when I heard them complain about getting passed over for promotions.

I understand the whole work-life balance thing, but the reality is the world of work is very competitive. You gotta bust your rear to get ahead. My way may not have been the best way, but if I had to do it over, I think I'd do it pretty much the same.

 

[dosry5]

I'm afraid, nowadays, my banhammer mostly sits in the corner, collecting dust. All of the blood stains are brown with age. Oh, but how I used to weild it, though! How it rocketed through cyberspace, doling out mighty cardinal and gold justice on the heathens and Hawkeyes! If I close my eyes I can still hear them pleading for mercy. A mercy that never came. Sometimes I still pick it up, and don the old executioners hood, that Chris Williams sent all of the mods for Christmas that one year. But it isn't the same as it used to be.

Perhaps banning is a young man's game? I've certainly got a lot more salt and not as much pepper in my beard than I did in the old days. Maybe that's just the way of things. You can beat every enemy they put in front of you, but in the end, the only opponent that matters is the one that greets you when you look in the mirror. And it seems that sad-eyed scarecrow has had the better of me for a while now.

 

[cstrunk]

I have the option to download Outlook/MS Teams but have said F that. My life is stressful enough when I'm at work. I'm a mid-level civil engineer. If something is important enough, my boss can get ahold of me. But there's usually never anything that important that it can't wait until the next business day.

When I become a Project Manager I may have to re-evaluate to an extent. Like I'll probably at least need to read emails to make sure there's no catastrophe, but again, it can usually wait. I don't want to live my life like that.

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

I hear you. I recently chose early retirement, but I spent my whole career working well beyond a 40 hr work week.

Fortunately, I enjoyed my job for the most part, so that made it so much easier. While my work ethic costed me some family time, it was always recognized by those above me and I was promoted throughout my career, so I was able to provide for my family throughout and I was able to retire comfortably recently while I'm relatively young and healthy. Now I spend a ton of time with my grandkids.

I know our younger staff was critical of my long hours behind my back. They liked to say they worked smarter, not harder, although I couldn't help but feel like they were rationalizing. And I always shook my head when I heard them complain about getting passed over for promotions.

I understand the whole work-life balance thing, but the reality is the world of work is very competitive. You gotta bust your rear to get ahead. My way may not have been the best way, but if I had to do it over, I think I'd do it pretty much the same.

Similar stuff. Except for a two year stint, I was enthralled with my career. Love affair at home and work. I was very fortunate and my relationship with kids and wife survived my type of craziness.......mostly a good crazy.

 

[GrindingAway]

I am weird and the whole need to keep work and non work completely separate and having to fully disconnect in evenings and weekends never really had any value to me. Maybe it’s from growing up working with a self employed dad growing up where there weren’t really off hours.

I also have a weird thing of needing to keep my inbox fairly clean. So for me spending a bit of time scanning email on weekends, evenings or vacations far outweighs the stress of coming back to a mountain of email. I also figure checking email on weekends or vacation just balances the time in the office I’m on CF

That said I also know the crap of having a boss where you wake up to a ton of email because he’s up all night every night replying. So as I’ve moved to management positions I use my phone to clean out garbage email that needs no reply. I scan the rest so they are easy to deal with in the office but mostly avoid replying unless it’s critical

 

[twincyties]

I have a few rules that help me (now that I don’t have an admin to sort my emails anymore):

1) I block time on my calendar to carve out time specifically for answering emails. This keeps me from multitasking during meetings and prevents them from piling up on me.

2) instruct my team not to copy me on emails unless it’s absolutely necessary that I know about something/make a decision right away. Otherwise they can share summary of “good to know” or “FYI” kind of things in one-on-one or end of week summary (which I will spend as little time on either Saturday AM or Sunday night - but only for my direct team members).

3). Set my email settings to group by subject line (instead of dozens of email in the same chain). May be purely psychological, but inbox seems less overwhelming when I see it this way. Also reduces risk of something getting lost in the shuffle.

I’m personally more prone to log in before bed and look for anything critical than I am to log in over the weekend.

 

[CychiatricWard]

I am a fully commissioned independent contractor. My income is directly tied to how much I put in. My work time as a project manager is directly tied to the weather so being in Iowa it means work is slow to completely halted come winter time. I’ve got 9 months of earning time, essentially.

Some of my fellow workers will work every weekend through the summer, but I said that is not for me as I love my weekends and time spent with friends and family. Could I make more money working weekends? Absolutely, but I do pretty dang well without having to sacrifice maybe a day here or there on the weekend. I work to enjoy life, not the other way around.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

I refuse to do email on my phone. If they need me they can call me. (which happens far too often)
I'm up right now because I was paged about a major incident of which has nothing to do with me.
They can talk about work/life balance all they want to make themselves feel as if they actually give a **** but in the end here I am at 1am on a Tuesday
I've been up all/almost all night every Saturday night for the last 6 weeks so I read through the myriad of emails during those times. 95+% of which are crap.
Too many emails, too many meetings yet no communication. IT sucks

 

[davegilbertson]

Literally turn off all notifications from Teams and Outlook on Friday around 4pm-ish and during all vacations.

If it’s truly an emergency it wouldn’t be done over those two contact mechanisms anyway.

You do this manual or can you set automatically?

 

[davegilbertson]

I'm afraid, nowadays, my banhammer mostly sits in the corner, collecting dust. All of the blood stains are brown with age. Oh, but how I used to weild it, though! How it rocketed through cyberspace, doling out mighty cardinal and gold justice on the heathens and Hawkeyes! If I close my eyes I can still hear them pleading for mercy. A mercy that never came. Sometimes I still pick it up, and don the old executioners hood, that Chris Williams sent all of the mods for Christmas that one year. But it isn't the same as it used to be.

Perhaps banning is a young man's game? I've certainly got a lot more salt and not as much pepper in my beard than I did in the old days. Maybe that's just the way of things. You can beat every enemy they put in front of you, but in the end, the only opponent that matters is the one that greets you when you look in the mirror. And it seems that sad-eyed scarecrow has had the better of me for a while now.

I would read a CF memoir written like this

 

[BryceC]

I wake up at the crack of dawn on the weekend so I usually check them in the morning just to get a jumpstart on the week. But once people are awake naw.