Workaholic for a boss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have an unpaid lunch break in there or something?

I've been working for 18 years and have never had a lunch break so it's never been on my radar and I could accidentally be that boss I guess.

I also send emails at weird times. As a working single mom, if I can't sleep at 3am I might as well play catch up. However, I do literally have my email signature saying "Wellbeing Notice: Receiving this email outside of normal working hours? Managing work and life responsibilities is unique for everyone. I have sent this email at a time that works for me. Please respond at a time that works for you."

OMG! I love your Wellbeing Notice! Well done!

I don't. It seems a bit over the top. I already know I'm not responding outside of business hours.

A lot of people I work with use this too. I don't like it and think it's performative. Just delay delivery on the emails or save them in drafts, if you actually don't care about a prompt response.

I agree. The wellbeing notice is lazy and selfish. We all have to check our email throughout the evening and weekend in case there is an actual emergency, so I end reading a non urgent email because the person can’t be bothered to delay send. Then I’m thinking about it and maybe even responding when there was no reason we had to be doing that at night or on a Saturday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have an unpaid lunch break in there or something?

I've been working for 18 years and have never had a lunch break so it's never been on my radar and I could accidentally be that boss I guess.

I also send emails at weird times. As a working single mom, if I can't sleep at 3am I might as well play catch up. However, I do literally have my email signature saying "Wellbeing Notice: Receiving this email outside of normal working hours? Managing work and life responsibilities is unique for everyone. I have sent this email at a time that works for me. Please respond at a time that works for you."

OMG! I love your Wellbeing Notice! Well done!

I don't. It seems a bit over the top. I already know I'm not responding outside of business hours.

A lot of people I work with use this too. I don't like it and think it's performative. Just delay delivery on the emails or save them in drafts, if you actually don't care about a prompt response.

I agree. The wellbeing notice is lazy and selfish. We all have to check our email throughout the evening and weekend in case there is an actual emergency, so I end reading a non urgent email because the person can’t be bothered to delay send. Then I’m thinking about it and maybe even responding when there was no reason we had to be doing that at night or on a Saturday.

Also agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have an unpaid lunch break in there or something?

I've been working for 18 years and have never had a lunch break so it's never been on my radar and I could accidentally be that boss I guess.

I also send emails at weird times. As a working single mom, if I can't sleep at 3am I might as well play catch up. However, I do literally have my email signature saying "Wellbeing Notice: Receiving this email outside of normal working hours? Managing work and life responsibilities is unique for everyone. I have sent this email at a time that works for me. Please respond at a time that works for you."

Good grief - it's almost 2026 -- haven't you figured out how to schedule delivery of an email for the following morning?

[Anonymous]

I am a professional, late-50s, and have never had a scheduled lunch break and have worked multiple jobs (public, private, for profit and not for profit). A meeting at that time, I would bring my lunch and eat during the meeting, and would expect everyone else to do the same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. She sounds incredibly undisciplined. I work a lot in the evenings and on the weekends. I guess you might say I’m a workaholic. What I’ve learned to do, which your boss would be wise to do, is to use delay delivery with my emails. I do not want any employee thinking they are expected to work outside of the workday simply because they got an email from me at 8pm. They’re welcome to do that on their own.

As for an 11:30-3pm meeting, please speak up. Say, “I see this is during lunch time. Are you providing lunch for us, or are we taking a break during the meeting?”

I would be floored if someone said that to me. Can't grown adults figure out how to eat food around their daily itinerary?

Good managers tell employees on the invite whether lunch will be served or if they should plan on eating before or after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have an unpaid lunch break in there or something?

I've been working for 18 years and have never had a lunch break so it's never been on my radar and I could accidentally be that boss I guess.

I also send emails at weird times. As a working single mom, if I can't sleep at 3am I might as well play catch up. However, I do literally have my email signature saying "Wellbeing Notice: Receiving this email outside of normal working hours? Managing work and life responsibilities is unique for everyone. I have sent this email at a time that works for me. Please respond at a time that works for you."

Good grief - it's almost 2026 -- haven't you figured out how to schedule delivery of an email for the following morning?

The con of delaying delivery is that if other people’s emails on the same topic come in in the interim, your email could look like a confusing non-sequitur or be OBE. People may wonder whether you or not you though the other info was relevant

[Anonymous]

^^ *whether or not you thought the other info was relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have an unpaid lunch break in there or something?

I've been working for 18 years and have never had a lunch break so it's never been on my radar and I could accidentally be that boss I guess.

I also send emails at weird times. As a working single mom, if I can't sleep at 3am I might as well play catch up. However, I do literally have my email signature saying "Wellbeing Notice: Receiving this email outside of normal working hours? Managing work and life responsibilities is unique for everyone. I have sent this email at a time that works for me. Please respond at a time that works for you."

OMG! I love your Wellbeing Notice! Well done!

I don't. It seems a bit over the top. I already know I'm not responding outside of business hours.

A lot of people I work with use this too. I don't like it and think it's performative. Just delay delivery on the emails or save them in drafts, if you actually don't care about a prompt response.

I agree. The wellbeing notice is lazy and selfish. We all have to check our email throughout the evening and weekend in case there is an actual emergency, so I end reading a non urgent email because the person can’t be bothered to delay send. Then I’m thinking about it and maybe even responding when there was no reason we had to be doing that at night or on a Saturday.

Get over it. I work with colleagues across the globe. You’re getting emails at weird times but you can set them aside until your normal work hours. Half the time it *is* normal working hours for some addressees when there are multiple people involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work with a woman who’s up and working by 4AM. She’ll take 3 flights instead of 1 to save $100. Why have a single hotel room for one person when two or three people can share? Why send a simple email when you can Teams, text, call, slack, and text again in a 3 minute period? She’s an insane workaholic who’s pennywise and pound foolish. She’s a decent person with a family but never stops working.

Thankfully she is not my boss!

Making people share a hotel room is inappropriate and unprofessional. I wouldn’t work anywhere where that was the expectation. She she’s demonstrating that her time is less valuable than $100, which isn’t a good reflection of her worth to the organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. She sounds incredibly undisciplined. I work a lot in the evenings and on the weekends. I guess you might say I’m a workaholic. What I’ve learned to do, which your boss would be wise to do, is to use delay delivery with my emails. I do not want any employee thinking they are expected to work outside of the workday simply because they got an email from me at 8pm. They’re welcome to do that on their own.

As for an 11:30-3pm meeting, please speak up. Say, “I see this is during lunch time. Are you providing lunch for us, or are we taking a break during the meeting?”

NP here. I don’t mess around with lunch. Why can’t you eat a big lunch at 11? That’s what I would do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a professional, late-50s, and have never had a scheduled lunch break and have worked multiple jobs (public, private, for profit and not for profit). A meeting at that time, I would bring my lunch and eat during the meeting, and would expect everyone else to do the same

I’m a 50 yo senior level professional and have never attended nor ever planned a meeting that covered a period of more than one hour when people traditionally eat and not served food. If the meeting is from 12-1, everyone can eat before or after. If it’s from 11-2, the planner needs to serve lunch. To not do so shows a complete disregard for the meeting attendees, is rude and unprofessional.

[Anonymous]

I would clarify if lunch was being served at the meeting: “are we ordering lunch or should I eat beforehand?”. Likewise, if I forgot to mention lunch in the calendar invite, I would expect someone to ask me.

As for working at all hours, it’s not a huge deal as long as: 1) culture (not a wellness disclosure) dictates non-emergency work is not required after business hours, and 2) your boss is actually available during said business hours.

I once had a boss who was routinely MIA during the workday but would email/text/message all night and weekend, which meant if I needed to interact my with boss, I was working his hours, regardless of any “wellness” message in his email signature.

[Anonymous]

My old boss had obvious ADHD. She was always all over the place and everyone talked about it. You’d be in her office for a meeting and she’d be scrolling the internet looking at shoes or something. Then around 6:00, she’d get stressed (likely because she didn’t get anything done all day) and starts calling everyone on the team asking for things. Everyone got extremely frustrated by the fact that they worked all day and she didn’t seem to really start working until everyone else was ready to sign off. I worked for her for a year and a half before I found a new job. My new boss gives me 100% attention in meetings and at the end of the day is always telling us to sign off, whatever we’re working on can wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a professional, late-50s, and have never had a scheduled lunch break and have worked multiple jobs (public, private, for profit and not for profit). A meeting at that time, I would bring my lunch and eat during the meeting, and would expect everyone else to do the same

I’ve always worked in the private sector (as an attorney) so perhaps my experience is skewed, but very few people bring their lunch. They’re always ordering in. Grocery shopping and packing a lunch takes time I don’t have.

[Anonymous]

The husband must cheat on her.