School asking parents to only email teachers during working hours

[cautiouscovidity]

We've had a message from DCs' (primary) school respectfully asking parents to only email the head and class teachers between 8:30-5:30 on school days and not during the evenings / weekends / holidays, for staff well-being reasons (they deserve protected downtime etc.).
AIBU to think that this is ridiculous? I work in a job where I don't always have access to a phone / computer during the working day and so, on the rare occasion that I need to contact a teacher, I tend to email in the evening at home or first thing before I get ready to leave. Obviously I don't expect them to reply out of working hours, or even to read it there and then, but I had never considered that it would be intrusive. In my job I get loads of emails at all times of the day and night and they just sit in my inbox until I am working!
Surely if it's impacting on their downtime so much, then they should just not check their emails in the evening and turn off notifications etc.

I agree in principle but then again it’s easy to just save the email and press send during working hours, or do a delayed send.

.....But not all email accounts do delayed send, not all parents have access to a personal phone or laptop while they are working...

Interesting that not a lot of places seem to have an email policy. This is why ours is turned off.

@EddieVeddersfoxymop

I see this from the other side. I get emails from parents at all hours. I receive them on my phone. The apps we use for contact don't allow me to mute just that app meaning if I want some undisturbed time I need to switch off my phone entirely. Not practical. Getting emails over the weekend or at midnight isn't great. Sorry, I agree with protecting the time of the staff for their own wellbeing. Let's not forget the parents that expect immediate replies and email again and again......

The school needs to find an app that can be muted then. That is far simpler and more sensible than trying to impose a policy of when people are allowed to send an email to school staff. In any case, those parents demanding immediate responses are not parents who will comply with a request about timing of sending emails. Rather than making this sort of request, which many people think is bizarre and which the people it is really aimed at will just ignore, why can't school SLTs take actual, meaningful action to find a real solution?

Oh I see Fiz got there first.

Yes that was what I was taking about.

'13:39Ejb86

Just schedule the email for the next working day. It isn't difficult.
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Today 13:40NiceGerbil

I don't think all email things can do that.

I've never seen it on yahoo.'

Apols if it wasn't clear enough.

I agree with everyone saying that it's an unreasonable request by the school. The school should be telling parents not to expect responses after hours AND have a strict policy in place that teachers do not respond after hours. The teachers have to create a culture of not responding immediately after hours. I'm a social worker, I could spend all of my free time communicating with parents, children and other professionals but I switch my phone and computer off and have an out of office message. Anyone who complains about emails not being responded to out of hours/immediately is unreasonable. But teachers are unreasonable if they expect parents not to email at a particular time just because the teacher has a difficulty in putting in appropriate boundaries. Teachers are intelligent professionals - why should other adults be expected to manage their time for them?

@DGRossetti how are their employers being unsupportive? Why should an employer have to tell an adult how to manage their own work life balance? All I see is some teachers (not all by any means) moaning about very normal things that go on at work, things everyone has to deal with

Seems a bit silly really. You should be able to email anytime. The teacher just shouldn’t look at their work email!

Can I ask why teachers require e mails. We have to phone in if DCs are ill, what else is needed by schools?

They will have the policies Emoji they just don't know or have forgotten about them.

IIRC it's part of the IT part Ofsted want to have policies for Email, Devices, Software, web page etc and they cover staff and students. It should also be made clear about "ownership" of loaned devices including who is responsible for repairs.

Ludicrous. I assume the staff have dedicated work emails so why are they looking at them out of hours!!

Far more reasonable to have a blanket statement that emails will only be handled in working hours. Doesn't matter when it is sent asong as parents aren't chasing for responses immediately. I often email of an evening but wouldn't expect a response until the next working day at the earliest.

If any of the teachers are also parents of children at other schools, when are they emailing teachers about their own children?! Not outside of working hours I hope...

TBF rainstorm larger employers do give advice on managing work life balance in digital age. Schools can and should be clear on policies and set expectations for both parents and all staff (office people could be in this position as well I imagine).

For an anecdote my worst was when working in global team including USA and Singapore. So people working and naturally pinging stuff at you 24/7! They were all lovely but it was a bit arrgh.

Several times I have emailed a teacher at, e.g. 4.30 -5pm, and the teacher has responded at 8pm or later.

I always felt very uncomfortable that they were having to work and think about my DC in their evenings. I also never knew if it would be OK to reply at the time, even though the teacher had set the precedent of emailing late in the evening.

I hope they were doing marking or something work-related rather than replying to my emails while trying to relax in front of the TV etc.

I agree.
I work for myself and clients get in touch whenever they think about. They know they’ll get a reply when I’m ready to reply though. I just don’t pick up their texts until I’m ready.

my dd is regularly in touch with her teachers at night, some till very late.
I've sent an email before at 9pm for the morning, teacher replied immediately.
I messaged back saying how i was so sorry and it was for the morning, she said she saw it and thought she'd answer. No big deal.
My point is that it depends on the teacher, the school, and the ethos etc.

@Mistressiggi maybe your magic immunity explains why the ONS says “Education workers have slightly lower exposure to disease and proximity to others.” Why not leave and become a social care worker if teaching is so difficult and high risk?

@justasking111

Can I ask why teachers require e mails. We have to phone in if DCs are ill, what else is needed by schools?

I can only talk about us. One school we were given emails because of issues with the schools phone system. Other times individual staff give out email to parents/guardians if there are ongoing issues, to stay in regular contact, send them copies of new reports (from parents), upcoming appointments and more.

Obviously something has triggered the request, they are not being unreasonable to ask, if you can then do it. If you can't then contact them and tell them reasons why it is a problem for you and work out a solution to how you contact them instead.

I've emailed loads of times out of working hours or on a weekend - my sons teachers and my own lecturers as a student. I've never expected a reply until after 9am monday/the next morning! Maybe they meant that rather than not sending them out of hours - some people might not get chance during their own working day?

It's quite feasible that a parent would have Yahoo though, which I think is the point NiceGerbil is making.

Which is why it's much easier it is for the school to deal with this at a single point (their email server) than a constellation of parents with all manner of solutions to go wrong ...

How ridiculous.

Teachers are working professionals just like any other. They are entirely capable of setting their own boundaries and choosing whether to check emails late at night. I honestly can’t imagine any other type of organisation making such a stupid request.

@NiceGerbil

DG rosetti I'm talking about the parents. Who have been told to do a delayed send on the emails to the teachers.

I'm not really going to comment on the logic of asking hundreds of parents to adjust their behaviour to disguise the fact the school can't be arsed to do it themselves.

Oh dear. I just have ....

I think its super weird when people open emails and even messages the second they are received but I know so many people who seem to think they have to. We had the same from our kids school but they said people had been sending an email on friday then angrily chasing it on Saturday and Sunday so that makes sense.

[quote RainStormTea]@DGRossetti how are their employers being unsupportive? Why should an employer have to tell an adult how to manage their own work life balance? All I see is some teachers (not all by any means) moaning about very normal things that go on at work, things everyone has to deal with[/quote]
School should simply set a rule in their email server to not forward emails after . Job done. Teachers then don't get emails until the next available window of opportunity.