Stupid rule about sending school an email

[Winebomb]

So preparing to write an email to my sons school about snack times (see my other thread) but just remembered we got a newsletter the first week of school stating:

"If you want to email the class teacher it must be sent between the hours of 8am and 5pm, any emails sent outside of this time will not be responded to"

Now I get there are some parents who are batshit, and think that if they email the teacher at 11pm they will have a response personally at the school gates the following morning, when they drop off their precious little snow flakes.

But isn't sending emails like writing a letter. I will write it at a convienient time, it may have been written at 11pm at night. But I am not batshit and expect it to be read either the next working day or at least the next working day afterwards after it's been delivered.

I work in the private sector and receive/send loads of emails post 5pm, and the same rules apply. Who are these parents who are just being bonkers???

All I can think of is writing my email and timing it in Outlook to be sent within the allotted time. But it just seems pointless.

Sorry probably answered my own AIBU and this is turning into more of a rant! But really!?!? Who are these people...

I have me work email on my phone for my own convenience - I have it defaulted to my personal email and I've turned all notifications off, it's not hard.

I then just don't check it unless I need something from it during my working day when I'm not near my PC. It's not hard and it's not a good reason for that stupid rule.

A better rule would be "you may send emails at any time but emails will be replied to during the working day when teaching staff have free periods, and responses will therefore take up to two working dates days."

Which is a pretty responsive turnaround for people who aren't at their computers for most of the day.

Aargh this is silly rule, I agree. If there is an issue with teachers being disturbed by emails when not at work, they should turn off their work email notifications at the end of the day- that's what I do and it works fine. How are they to know you even have email access during those hours?

I did have a colleague who had this rule- that any emails sent outside 9-5 were auto-deleted (he had some rule set up on Outlook to do it)
It made it impossible for me to email when I was on night shift and I certainly wasn't going to get up in the middle of my "night" to do it. Frankly I did grin to myself when our regulatory body sent out all the renewal notification bumf at about 8pm one evening and he missed his.

To be fair I wouldn't expect teachers to have email on their personal phones, I work in the financial services and it's heavily regulated. We are not even allowed to have our personal phones switched on past the reception area. It's a massive data protection risk for many reasons.

So I hope this is not the case.

All I can imagine is some ridiculous parents have complained because their class teacher didn't respond to an email sent at 3am or what ever, and then didn't acknowledge receipt in person at the morning at drop off.

I am now feverishly looking around the playground looking for signs of truely bonkers parents. Hopefully said parents children where in year 6 last term..

Maybe they've had issue with a parent sending daft emails after a few bevvys?

I think what they really mean is - Don't send the teacher an email at 11pm after downing a bottle of wine - and then expect an answer in the morning.

When I say ridiculous, I do mean either parents of precious snowflakes or parents who get a bit email happy after a few glasses in the evening..

Just write it and send it during the "reasonable" time. It's really no big deal

Our school has a similar rule and it is because we can all access our school emails at home. This means that, in the past, teachers were upset about receiving emails from parents during the evenings, weekends and holidays. As others have said, they are hard to ignore. Often we will email each other planning and so on, or need to read things from the Head - guidance, policies - so it isn't as easy as disabling the service out of hours.

We also had disparity because some teachers didn't mind replying during evenings/holidays so parents would complain that their friend got an immediate reply while they had to wait.

So, easier to make sure that parents only email 8-5. It might not be the perfect service for parents, but I hope not too inconvenient.

It seems a fairly straight forward request to me.

Our primary school decided that all emails needed to go via the info@ school address. That way i guess they'd only be forwarded by office staff during working hours

So if you sent an email at midnight saying "the SMT are all evil cucumbers and I think I'm a Dalek" no one would respond? Brilliant. What fun you could have. Please do this. the teacher would find it hilarious.

For all sensible parents this is a stupid rule but not all parents are sensible

I'm a teacher. I don't have a work mobile, only a personal one. The email account set up on it is, obviously, my personal email. If I want to check my work email on it, I have to go in through webmail.
It's obviously a ridiculous rule - surely they worded it badly and they're talking about when you can expect a response?!

I think this is increasingly a "thing". I'm a senior manager and work very flexibly around my dd, so I quite often leave work early and then catch up in the evenings. My boss is similar, except that his preferred time to catch up is at around 5am.

I have no problem with people sending me emails at silly o'clock or over the weekend. I don't have to look at them, and if I email people myself at an anti-social time, I certainly don't expect a response until the next working day at the earliest. However, our HR department keeps issuing edicts about not sending emails outside normal working hours because people apparently feel under pressure to respond straightaway. It's all part of a much bigger push on work-life balance, which I welcome, but I think they're missing the point that lots of us are working at odd times precisely because we are trying to maintain a good work-life balance and accommodate our other commitments.

The other favourite HR "thing" at the moment is that we all have to take a "proper" lunch break. I have no problem with my team taking hour-long lunch breaks if they so wish, but I don't want to waste an hour on lunch because I'd rather get away from the office earlier!

Instead of these silly gimmicks, I wish employers would just focus on creating a culture where work-life balance is considered to be a priority but which recognises that that will mean different things for different people. The message should be emphasising that people aren't expected to reply to emails at silly times, and not restricting when people can send them. And individual members of staff should be urged to take responsibility for their own health and well-being by managing how much work correspondence they choose to access outside their normal working hours.

winebomb - having seen your input about schools and teachers on other threads, I imagine the rule is to deal with parents like you. It's really not that difficult to find time between 8 and 5 to send an email if it is that important. You can always spend the whole evening feverishly drafting if you want and then just send the next morning. After all I imagine an email about snacks is some pretty urgent stuff!

I think the possibility of 24/7 emailing and texting has increased expectations of instant access day and night. Many think nothing of shooting off an e-mail or text - often about things that the person would not bother making an appointment or waiting in a phone queue for - yet there is and expectation of immediate replies.

I work in a Uni and have received e-mails on Christmas Day from students demanding help with an assignment or seminar question.

I don't normally check work email outside of work hours, but they're all still there when I get in next day.

What a strange rule.

And having seen your other thread. Pull your finger out and actually bother to cook your child some dinner instead of complaining to the school about their snacks!

It can be a way of stopping people having a glass or two of courage when they get home and turning keyboard warrior on the teacher.

Teachers can and do access their emails at home...I've had email replies late on Friday night, and very early in the morning....with the explanation he was catching up on emails while feeding the baby....I nearly told him to concentrate on his baby.

Anyway, yes it's a stupid request although I've had this request at work because apparently my boss was being woken up in the night by her iPad pinging.

Gosh, I have 3 children with SEN and work full time - if I couldn't fire off all my emails to the SENCO, teachers, linked medical professionals, etc in the wee small hours after I've done everything else, the school would never hear from me... wait a minute...

I honestly can't see why parents can't put a timer on their email or draft it at a time that suits and hit 'send' 8-5pm.

I notice lots of people think teachers should disable their emails after 5pm, switch their devices off, ignore incoming emails from parents or just find a way to manage their anxieties.

All fair enough I guess. Or, should you be lucky enough to have your teacher's direct email address, since many schools don't provide them at all, why not simply adhere to this rule, however silly and pointless you may think it is, because the teachers at this particular school have decided that it's the way they'd prefer things to be. They give a lot to the kids during the school day I'm sure, is this request really inconveniencing you?

I too would presume it is just a badly worded phrase meaning "Do not expect a reply between 5pm and 8am". Like you OP, I consider an e-mail to be a note / letter that you post at your convenience and the recipient reads at their convenience. It isn't a ringing phone 'disturbing' you.
If anyone chooses to get e-mails on their personal phone then they have opted in or chosen to be disturbed - it isn't the way e-mails were intended to be.
If a teacher has work e-mails on their personal phone, then there is a data protection issue the school should be made aware of.
If I choose to look at work e-mails on my day off or in the evenings, that is my choice, and obviously I wouldn't respond to parents at that time.

I honestly can't see why parents can't put a timer on their email or draft it at a time that suits and hit 'send' 8-5pm

I go on my computer at this time of night, and deal with all my personal / family / household stuff then. Then I sleep. Then I go to work. I might not go back n my computer again then until this time the next night, and the might after, and the night after that..... etc.

Because they are fed up with pissed up mums sending latenight wine-fuelled emails, I suspect.

So, email the school office instead and ask for it to be passed on. You can guarantee there's no one checking those emails late at night. Teachers may be checking email in order to read emails from colleagues about a meeting the next day or a shared class - that's a whole different ball game to hearing from Nigel's dad at midnight.