Private sector people - do people at your co send emails during off hours? A number of the business clients I serve do

[Anonymous]

I work with people around the globe. The idea that they should all be aware of my time zone and working hours, and only send me emails during these times, is truly bizarre.

[Anonymous]

The fundamental issue is probably that OP has company does have a thing called urgent emails. He is expected to respond to those at all hours.

They should transition to a modern technology like teams or texting and leave the asynchronous email for non-urgent matters, since it has a much higher volume

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this even though our HR gives regular updates about not doing this.

Ironically the people who do this most often are the men who work in technology, and who therefore should know how to delay delivery of an email so it arrives during regular hours instead of at midnight.

Fwiw these are never urgent emails, and very often any minimal urgency is caused by their delay.

How would you handle?

I don’t always respond right away, but if I see an email from work pop up, I’m going to end up thinking about it.

Yes. I have worked in different sectors- private, public, and non-profit/ foundation and I always sent emails at all hours.

You have clients and others who work in different time zones, there are emergencies, and many people work off hours. I may go pick my kid up at camp at 5PM (after arriving to work at 8 am) but I’m signing back on at 8 once they are in bed and sending more emails/ doing work.

I am a woman. My boss also does this. Unlike her (who expects a response right away) my team and colleagues know I don’t expect a response after work hours, but I am so busy I need to send stuff out.

I used to delay send so it would go during business hours but there was an issue with it once so I said forget it and now just send them when I’m working on it. I’m busy and get hundreds maybe even thousands of emails a day. I can’t just leave them for business hours. I wouldn’t get anything done if I did. OP, if you have such an issue with it just don’t check your email after hours. There it is now solved!

In all honesty I got where I am though by getting things done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomers gonna boom, they don't know how to use email delay, let alone make a PDF

I’m a millennial in tech, and I do not want to be bothered with setting up delays for emails. What a waste of time and all of the ways to delay an email are finicky

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this even though our HR gives regular updates about not doing this.

Ironically the people who do this most often are the men who work in technology, and who therefore should know how to delay delivery of an email so it arrives during regular hours instead of at midnight.

Fwiw these are never urgent emails, and very often any minimal urgency is caused by their delay.

How would you handle?

I don’t always respond right away, but if I see an email from work pop up, I’m going to end up thinking about it.

Yes. I have worked in different sectors- private, public, and non-profit/ foundation and I always sent emails at all hours.

You have clients and others who work in different time zones, there are emergencies, and many people work off hours. I may go pick my kid up at camp at 5PM (after arriving to work at 8 am) but I’m signing back on at 8 once they are in bed and sending more emails/ doing work.

I am a woman. My boss also does this. Unlike her (who expects a response right away) my team and colleagues know I don’t expect a response after work hours, but I am so busy I need to send stuff out.

I used to delay send so it would go during business hours but there was an issue with it once so I said forget it and now just send them when I’m working on it. I’m busy and get hundreds maybe even thousands of emails a day. I can’t just leave them for business hours. I wouldn’t get anything done if I did. OP, if you have such an issue with it just don’t check your email after hours. There it is now solved!

In all honesty I got where I am though by getting things done.

Your boss is part of the problem if she expects response quickly for a off hour emails

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg turn on DND.

It’s 2025, it’s not my job to make sure your email is not arriving during dinner time. E-mail. It’s not a phone call. It’s not even a text. It’s the most non urgent communication imaginable. People work all hours now, for flexibility not necessarily urgency or long hours.

This. If I am working at 7pm or 9pm, or 1am, and I have an email to send, I will send it. It does not mean I expect you to respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental issue is probably that OP has company does have a thing called urgent emails. He is expected to respond to those at all hours.

They should transition to a modern technology like teams or texting and leave the asynchronous email for non-urgent matters, since it has a much higher volume

But is he actually expected to respond? It doesn't sound like he's having trouble differentiating between what's urgent and what isn't. And if he is, that's a lot easier to solve than getting people to stop sending emails when they want to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this even though our HR gives regular updates about not doing this.

Ironically the people who do this most often are the men who work in technology, and who therefore should know how to delay delivery of an email so it arrives during regular hours instead of at midnight.

Fwiw these are never urgent emails, and very often any minimal urgency is caused by their delay.

How would you handle?

I don’t always respond right away, but if I see an email from work pop up, I’m going to end up thinking about it.

Yes. I have worked in different sectors- private, public, and non-profit/ foundation and I always sent emails at all hours.

You have clients and others who work in different time zones, there are emergencies, and many people work off hours. I may go pick my kid up at camp at 5PM (after arriving to work at 8 am) but I’m signing back on at 8 once they are in bed and sending more emails/ doing work.

I am a woman. My boss also does this. Unlike her (who expects a response right away) my team and colleagues know I don’t expect a response after work hours, but I am so busy I need to send stuff out.

I used to delay send so it would go during business hours but there was an issue with it once so I said forget it and now just send them when I’m working on it. I’m busy and get hundreds maybe even thousands of emails a day. I can’t just leave them for business hours. I wouldn’t get anything done if I did. OP, if you have such an issue with it just don’t check your email after hours. There it is now solved!

In all honesty I got where I am though by getting things done.

Your boss is part of the problem if she expects response quickly for a off hour emails

NP: Welcome to reporting to a workaholic who lives,drinks, eats,and sleeps the job

[Anonymous]

[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental issue is probably that OP has company does have a thing called urgent emails. He is expected to respond to those at all hours.

They should transition to a modern technology like teams or texting and leave the asynchronous email for non-urgent matters, since it has a much higher volume

But is he actually expected to respond? It doesn't sound like he's having trouble differentiating between what's urgent and what isn't. And if he is, that's a lot easier to solve than getting people to stop sending emails when they want to.

That’s the issue. The very existence of “urgent emails” means he must take the cognitive load to evaluate every email that comes in after hours. I assume she has some filters; maybe she can see phone to only ding when her boss emails?

She needs to push back and ask for a realtime notification channel like calling or texting or maybe teams if it’s on her phone.

[Anonymous]

I send messages whenever I have the time to do so. Emails do not need instant responses. But you sound really entitled and stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental issue is probably that OP has company does have a thing called urgent emails. He is expected to respond to those at all hours.

They should transition to a modern technology like teams or texting and leave the asynchronous email for non-urgent matters, since it has a much higher volume

But is he actually expected to respond? It doesn't sound like he's having trouble differentiating between what's urgent and what isn't. And if he is, that's a lot easier to solve than getting people to stop sending emails when they want to.

That’s the issue. The very existence of “urgent emails” means he must take the cognitive load to evaluate every email that comes in after hours. I assume she has some filters; maybe she can see phone to only ding when her boss emails?

She needs to push back and ask for a realtime notification channel like calling or texting or maybe teams if it’s on her phone.

NP, I would argue that Teams is also not a channel that requires immediate response, especially off-hours. Texting perhaps more so, a call if you really want to be sure someone is attending to an issue. (And I'm someone who hates calls out the blue - but an urgent off-hours issue would warrant it.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental issue is probably that OP has company does have a thing called urgent emails. He is expected to respond to those at all hours.

They should transition to a modern technology like teams or texting and leave the asynchronous email for non-urgent matters, since it has a much higher volume

But is he actually expected to respond? It doesn't sound like he's having trouble differentiating between what's urgent and what isn't. And if he is, that's a lot easier to solve than getting people to stop sending emails when they want to.

That’s the issue. The very existence of “urgent emails” means he must take the cognitive load to evaluate every email that comes in after hours. I assume she has some filters; maybe she can see phone to only ding when her boss emails?

She needs to push back and ask for a realtime notification channel like calling or texting or maybe teams if it’s on her phone.

The appropriate conversation is with the manager about how to handle this. If you start telling people who don't report to you when to send you emails, that's going to come across as not understanding workplace norms, regardless of the official policy of the company.

[Anonymous]

My last two old company we never used emails for work deliverables. It be either Jira or Service Now ticketing system.

There are SLAs to respond. Failure to meet SLAs on a regular basis impacts your raise and bonus.

So the Hot Potato game was very rampant. I often send out a pile of requests or respond on Fridays between 5 pm and 630 pm and I also jump back on Sunday night around 9pm and see if any one responded and do it again. I was king of late nights.

And Slack dont get me started I love Slack, but trouble with Slack it is channels and in channels everyone can see the slack. So if you are slacked and dont respond everyone in the channel sees.

Both jobs Forbidden to assign work or ask questions or answer questions in an email or text as they wanted a record for everyone. Slack is great with AI so I can query to see if answered before and ex-employees slacks stay forwever too.

All deliverables in Jira or Service not for all to see even if left.

And Google Docs they see your activity and they can edit it anytime and your get alerted.

Both companies did not really have standard work hours so to speak. So I know you people are old as dirt but lets say a young person is going to a concert or club Sunday night and wants to sleep in Monday they will get most of Monday work done on Sunday. If a old fart like me wants to go to beach Friday afternoon I will bang out some work late Thursday night.

My phone of course had Slack, Jira, Google, Email 24/7 and my work mac or laptop was in my office plugged in and open 24/7. If I was up at 2 am and could not sleep of course I would jump on line. If asleep or course I would not jump on line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental issue is probably that OP has company does have a thing called urgent emails. He is expected to respond to those at all hours.

They should transition to a modern technology like teams or texting and leave the asynchronous email for non-urgent matters, since it has a much higher volume

But is he actually expected to respond? It doesn't sound like he's having trouble differentiating between what's urgent and what isn't. And if he is, that's a lot easier to solve than getting people to stop sending emails when they want to.

That’s the issue. The very existence of “urgent emails” means he must take the cognitive load to evaluate every email that comes in after hours. I assume she has some filters; maybe she can see phone to only ding when her boss emails?

She needs to push back and ask for a realtime notification channel like calling or texting or maybe teams if it’s on her phone.

NP, I would argue that Teams is also not a channel that requires immediate response, especially off-hours. Texting perhaps more so, a call if you really want to be sure someone is attending to an issue. (And I'm someone who hates calls out the blue - but an urgent off-hours issue would warrant it.)

'' Texting is never allowed at a lot of companies. That is in violation of SEC 17a3 books and records rules at a broker dealer for instance And other companies have rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand the panic over receiving an email in off hours. It’s inherently asynchronous communication. You’re expected to respond when you’re available.

+1. Absolutely this. I strongly feel that it is rude to delay delivery until the time that *you* think is an appropriate work time. I know people who LIKE to get up at 5-6 a.m., spend time responding to emails, then get their kids to school and go to the gym when it's less crowded before returning to work again. Who am I to judge that they shouldn't be able to do that because I am going to arbitrarily hold and email until 9 a.m.? And there are tons of working parents that knock off at 5 p.m. because they want to be able to cook and eat dinner with their kids, but then will come and do another hour or two of work after the kids are in bed. I think it's incredibly rude and contrary to allowing people to establish a work-life balance to use "delay delivery" on emails. Let professionals manage their own work hours, please.

I do use delay delivery only for one client where the staff is collectively bargained, OT eligible, and not permitted to work outside 9 to 5 -- they have requested I delay delivery until 9 am for those folks.