to look at work emails tonignt although Im still on leave?

[Member869894]

I've had three days off. Back tomorrow. I have 306 emails in my inbox that have come in since Wed morning. If I don't look at them now tomorrow will be hell. If I do I am forgoing a Sunday night of leisure and I've vowed to myself I will not spend so much time working.

Are you being paid to work tonight? Are you saving lives?

If no to those questions, then definitely not.

Of the 306, how many are likely to need action?

See I check emails on a Sunday evening. I find it helps me get ahead for what I need to be focussing on when I get in on Monday. However I don’t respond to any I just read and rearrange/ prioritise my Monday work load.

Do them tomorrow. If you 'must' look at them tonight, only delete the obvious shit ones to make the list look smaller tomorrow.

I would have a quick look and get rid of the junk. It would put me in a better place for tomorrow.

I’m guessing that many, if not most, won’t actually need a response or any action from you? I had a week off and came back in to hundreds of emails. Less than 10 needed a response, maybe 20 more were things I needed to know about but didn’t need me to do anything other than read them.

I wouldn’t ruin your Sunday night doing work!

If the thought of all those emails is gonna ruin your Sunday night, maybe go through and delete what can be deleted and flag things you need to prioritise tomorrow morning. But don’t get sucked in to reading in detail and responding now! You’re not being paid to work Sunday evening remember!

Don't look at them! If you think you'll spend an hour on them, you're kidding yourself. The rest of the evening will be spent thinking about them.

I would click through, delete any that don't need to be there and spend no more than 15 mins on it.

Is anyone going to die if you don't read them tonight?! They've been there since Wednesday. One more night won't change anything.

Thank you all. I think I will follow Hollowtalk's advice as if I start looking now I'll be thinking about them all night. I'm really trying not to devote my whole life to my job

Don't look at them! If you think you'll spend an hour on them, you're kidding yourself. The rest of the evening will be spent thinking about them.

This is solid advice. I would do it and then spend all night thinking about them and wish I hadn't.

Relax and unwind like you're supposed to tonight; catch up tomorrow. Nobody should expect much the first morning that you're back.

I check my work emails on a Sunday evening simply so that there are no nasty surprises on a Monday morning. This is a hangover from working in a boarding school where people were on duty 24/7 and emails would frequently be sent in the evenings/weekends. I didn’t like surprises so would rather check them, and plan responses en route to work the next morning.

When I come back from leave and face loads of emails I first sort by name. Then I can easily delete in a chunk the ones I know I won't have to do anything about. Then I take a name at a time - choosing as priority those I am directly working with, and read their latest email first so that you can read the whole thread - that way you can delete all the others swiftly as you have already read them in the latest email. Reading the last one often means what you might have had to do if you were reading the earliest in sequence has been resolved/sorted by somebody else. Mental load lifted.

Not sure that makes sense. Or whether I am stating the obvious!

That's useful Sarcelle; the constant relentless emails are the bane of my life; I m always thinking of ways that I can mange them better than I do