Can I ask for your help in drawing new boundaries with work?

[MiddleOfChaos]

I work four days a week and pretty much every evening to achieve fulltime hours. I am really flexible, go above and beyond for my work and try my upmost. It is a job that I love and with people I really like. Today I've had two emails from people at work, one where some one has decided they want part of a report redrafted before it gets sent to the publishers on Monday morning at 9.30am, another saying they want a progress report for a project for a meeting at 10am on Monday. I'd not mind if I'd been slack but I asked the sender of email (a) to sign off the report over a week ago to give me chance for any last minute edits and sender (b) if they wanted a progress report on project x last Monday they said no they will verbal update - now they've changed their mind.

I know I've probably created some of this by always trying to support them (should add none of these are my bosses - we are all equal and relatively senior!). Plus I take a day off in the week to be with my children, with the idea I make this up in evenings which I do and some during the week - I try and keep weekends for myself and family. when I challenged this before I have the comments of but you have to flexible etc, we're in the office all week - so I understand they don't like the arrangement I have - however equally they could do it too if they wished, it is an option available to all of us. I need to remind them of my working arrangement but hate conflict and need some help in drawing boundaries round this again!! Also I think they are taking the p* when I specifically asked about these things during the week!!

If there is anything that you know is "pending" before lunchtime on your last day before your weekend officially starts, can you send a quick email to the person concerned and remind them of the pending item eg a report and say you can help up until x time, then you'll be back again 9am Monday. At least it will set the expectation you cant respond at weekends.

And definitely don't logon or check emails at the weekend.

My management would never expect weekend working, they know not to ask! Actually they frown on it, as it implies I can't manage my time well. Fair enough.

The OP is not having a "day off". They are being paid to work for four days.

One of the issues with flexible working is that some colleagues may interpret this (as have some posters here!) as meaning that you're permanently on duty.

I work f/t for a large company in a senior role, working mainly from home, which makes the working hours issue an important one for me. As it happens I do sometimes work at weekends, because it suits me to do so, but at the same time I draw a strict line when it comes to the level of commitment I'm prepared to give to my job. That strict line definitely comes into play when or comes to sorting out issues that have arisen as a result of other people's fuck-ups and inability to meet deadlines. As several people have said, keep a paper trail!

In this case, if the report were my responsibility, and if the last minute changes were strictly necessary AND under my direct control, then I'd get them done - of course. What I wouldn't be doing is last minute tinkering - ie non-essential edits that were only last minute because someone else didn't do his job (let's remember here that it's not the OP who is shirking her responsibilities - she's been let down by colleagues). I would probably either ignore the mail completely then send a "tough, deadline already gone" note on Monday, or reply promptly to say that sorry, I have a busy weekend, but if you want to organise the edits yourself then please feel free to do them, and I'll proof read them first thing on Monday.

I can't help but wonder if you work for big4. This happens to me all the time. If I get a request the first thing I do is to email my superior to inform them I am rolling hours. This means that if I do the report I'm going to take x hours off the following week. If I am working with someone who doesn't respect deadlines I take it up with the person determining my rating and if it continues I speak to the offenders superior.

Draw a line in the sand now. I used to do this and was put in the bonkers position of being harassed by a colleague whilst on holiday abroad ( 7 texts, 4 calls to my personal mobile).
Colleague not senior, but didn't think I would mind going through proposal with him ON MY BLOODY FAMILY HOLIDAY as I had always helped out before .
My boss &HR got involved ( as he had used a ruse to obtain my mobile number)
I now ONLY work during contracted hours. Please don't do that report !

If you do that report now, don't expect that colleague to take any notice of any deadline you set ever again. You'll be showing her your boundaries are worthless. If you politely point out she's missed the stated time you'd allocated to work on this so now it can't be done, she just might think twice about emailing lame requests on a Saturday again.

Actually, I'd suggest your working arrangement has nothing to do with this. They emailed you on Saturday for things they want done by 9:30am and 10am on Monday? That wouldn't make a difference had you been there all day Friday...

Can you just stop checking email on weekends? Why do you anyway? If you hadn't checked, you wouldn't have known, and you'd be sending a message at 9am on Monday saying, "I asked you sign off on this a week ago, I can't do last minute changes on a weekend" and "You said you wanted a verbal report, I can't produce a whole report over a weekend".

You need to first of all make everyone aware of your working hours.

Then get an automatic out of office notification on your emails for your non working days/hours: 'I am currently out of the office but will respond to your email on my return on Monday 11 May' or whatever.

And just stop checking your emails when you're not working!

Ok so I have made the changes to the report that is due at the publishers - on checking it seems the client requested amendments yesterday morning and my colleague who is lead on the report is not an expert in the area they needed amendments on (the bit I wrote). I emailed her back saying I didn't mind helping in emergencies - we all the pull the stops out when needed but think she could of been clearer in where this request came from and I had asked her to check with the client as part of the sign off as these were amendments I'd already suggested - so this 'emergency' could have been avoided. However as a client was involved I felt I needed to step in. I've emailed the other colleague back and said no - either she needs to write the report, be satisfied to give a verbal update or I'll do a quick piece on Monday first thing. Annoying thing is we all lead our own projects which the others dip into - neither of these are 'my' projects, but seem to take up more of my time than 'my' projects - but that may well be just the way our work is going at the moment and at other times I'm sure they feel the same about 'my' projects.
I've also said to both of them we need to re-discuss our working hours and flexibility at the next team meeting as it is something that we all value about our work, but can become overwhelming at times. I don't think there is any concern I don't pull my weight (likewise I don't have these concerns about them at all - they're amazing colleagues majority of the time) - but as the only one with children I do think they struggle to understand my need for boundaries.
Now work done (been up since 5am!) I am going to enjoy a day with my DH and boys!!
Thanks for all the advice - hope I've done the right thing.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got.

Do the work and they'll continue to expect it. It will be your own fault because you've basically told them that this is okay.

I would ignore the emails and deal with it on Monday and set an out of office email with your working times included.

If you are like my husband though, you will take fuck all notice if this advice which is why people infringe on his home life. It's simply easier for them if you sort their problem out - it's not impossible for them to wait or do it themselves, they just don't want to. Your choice to be a mug.

X posted OP. Well done