To not check my work emails on my days off?

[OverpaidT]

I don't work a normal 9-5 job. I work shifts and only work three days a week due to my shifts. However, my company is made up of shift workers and 9-5 workers. If I send an email I don't expect a reply for a few days minimum as I might be sending it at 2am on a Saturday night. I don't check my emails when I'm home on non-working days. I received an email which has had me questioning this and I now wonder if people who do have equipment to WFH check their emails when they are on their days off?

@satnighttakeaway

Some people do, some don't as long as you're doing your job and are comfortable with your choice why would you change?

Different workplaces have different cultures and expectations

This.

Every workplace is different and every job has different expectations.

I'm a teacher and often receive out of hours messages telling me my timetable has changed for the following day. I'd love to see the reaction if I said sorry, I don't check my emails/messages when not at work.

No I don't. Once I walk out of the door at my finish time I don't even think about work until my start time.
My start time is 08.00. I'm usually sat at my desk with a cuppa at around 07.50. The phone can ring itself clean off my desk and I won't answer it until 08.00, nor do I switch my computer on until the same.
If I wanted to give my time freely, I would work in a charity shop.
I work part time and refuse point blank to work overtime. I work part time for my convenience.

I work shifts too and never check emails on days off.
I want a complete break from work including a mental break.
My DH however checks his but his is more that he needs to know straight away if something is wrong.
We have different personalities too, he is much more relaxed than me and doesn't need the mental break like I do.

We are actively encouraged not to do so, including out of hours. Senior managers are advised to delay sending emails until the start of the next working day if working late.
If you do work shifts then it might be worth outlining when you are next back in work on your out of office to manage expectations of a reply.

I work part time and don't check on my days off as a general rule - only if there's a specific reason. I set my out of office saying when I'll be back and give alternative contact details for anything that can't wait.

My start time is 08.00. I'm usually sat at my desk with a cuppa at around 07.50. The phone can ring itself clean off my desk and I won't answer it until 08.00, nor do I switch my computer on until the same.

Do you expect any flexibility from your workplace @NoddyWithAVoddy?

I work 9-5ish. Once I'm switched off for the day I will often have a quick look in the evening but very rarely reply unless it's critical. My days off, no. My boss is on my out of office, he has my personal mobile no for emergencies and his position is that if we are not working, we are not working, he applies the same to himself. If there is a big project going on and I'm needed I will always swap my day off no problem, and i will always work late in the evening if I need to, but I won't have half my day off taken up with calls and emails. For me it's not the couple of minutes it takes to actually read and reply, it's that the initial email often leads to something else, and once I've looked at my emails I find it incredibly hard to stop thinking about work, and then my nice calm day off headspace is ruined. And if certain people receive a reply on my day off, they will continue to email me about other things as they then think I don't mind and I'm available.

I do work with a lot of people who answer emails immediately even when their out of office says they are on annual leave. How do they ever get a full mental break to recharge and not think about work?!

I'm largely WFH from home now and no I don't check out of hours or weekends. We were actually told by the head of the company how to set email settings that "hold" emails sent out of hours so they aren't delivered until the agree core business hours.

It can be tricky depending on the job when you work 3 days and others work 5 and how much of a control freak you are! If you are responsible for running a project or managing others I might keep a cursory eye on my phone for emails if there is something important Going on

It's a bit of reasonable give abs take really? If you are too strict and "work to rule" then the company is less likely to be flexible with you if say you needed to finish early one day/start later

I check my emails on annual leave/days off maybe once or twice. I'm a mid level role and though its not right if I want to look reliable and want pay rises/promotions then i need to make myself agreeable

I'm just starting to cut back again. I work 4 days but because of the volume of work had got into the habit of logging on on my day off. As someone said it's not the few minutes every now and again to check things - it's the headspace thinking about it. Today I am not going to as I will be out most of the day I told folk to contact me on mobile if it's something urgent only.

I do but I’m working at a level where it is expected, I wouldn’t expect the same from others.

It's a slippery slope in my experience. In my current work place we are pretty good and strict with it (and I encourage that). Generally my mobile number is available so it's a policy of if it's non urgent, send it by email and I will deal with it when I'm back in. If it's absolutely urgent, you can call me.
In previous places we've had company WhatsApps etc which I've hated as it's been a 7 day a week, impossible to escape mentality. Best feeling ever was leaving and deleting that group when I moved on.

I did during lockdown because I was the only one not furloughed from a team of 6. However now everyone is back I've deleted the app from my phone and when I stop working for the day I don't think about it until I'm next working. Although I do tend to work extra hours anyway.

New Years resolution is to pull my work/life balance back to normal as much as possible.

No as I can't read them on my private laptop or phone and I am not logging in on my work laptop unless there is an absolute emergency (like no signatories available or 4-eye-principle can't be done).

I may get a WhatsApp from a colleague with a question but that's maybe once a month if at all.

I have an out-of-office clearly stating that I am out until whatever date and that emails are not read or forwarded automatically so please contact xyz. Colleagues do read emails but normally people do contact my cover if it is urgent.

Perhaps an out of office message with your shifts that week would help? Some of my co workers do this as the majority of my workplace works part time now so it’s easy to miss one another.

But no I would not check your emails outside of your shifts. You are not paid on your days off so therefore you don’t work.

Fuck no. Never. It's something that I used to do and it gradually turned into me always working and made me extremely stressed and unhappy. My pay was good but it just wasn't worth it in the end. When we relocated to another area and I had to leave my job, I made a promise to myself that from now on work was just work and I would never let it take over my life again.

It's taken a while but I now have the confidence to put reasonable boundaries in place, and I really do think that not being expected to do work during non contracted hours is reasonable. (I appreciate that for self-employed people it's different).

This has not negatively impacted my career in the way that some might fear. I find that it garners you a certain amount of respect.

I did before I had kids but rarely do now. I’ve missed the odd important last minute meeting/email and people have been grumpy, but they will take whatever I’m willing to give and no/ones ever going to thank me for it. My time with my kids is far more important than some minuscule bit of good will it would earn me.

It might be worth setting an out of office reply when you are not working which says this is non work day for me but I work on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and will reply to you then. Obviously write it better than I have here.

I do if we're in crisis mode - I'm middlingly senior in the NHS and you can imagine with COVID/vaccination/winter pressures things are a bit hot. But it's not routine and it's not expected of me, just appreciated if I pick up something fast. I won't be doing it over Christmas, we have all been told not to and to leave it to the very senior people.

I work full time but try not to check out of hours. If something big is happening I do keep an eye via my work phone.

I most certainly don't even though it's impossible to finish my NHS work during the week. I'll stay late if its desperate but my weekends are sacrosanct. It terrible for your mental health to be at work all the time.
Your real life is much more important than work, what will you choose to remember on your deathbed?

rainkeepsfallingdown

To be clear, in my line of work, overtime is actually part of the job description and it's expected. The key thing is making sure that it's spread amongst the entire team fairly

How many hours of overtime does your team do each week if it's expected that they do it as part of their JD? Surely it would make more sense to staff appropriately so you aren't asking this of the team every week?

Not a chance, I'd maybe do it if I was being paid a lot more. But even then it would be the exception not the rule.

I know someone who frequently works until midnight, despite the work hours ending at 6pm. They started doing a little bit of extra time because they had so much to do, so colleagues then expected more from them, which meant they had to do extra time to keep up, and it became a vicious cycle and they are permanently stressed.

The part-timers actually get a much better work-life balance than the full-timers as we all desperately try to respect their non-working days where we can, with urgent out-of-hours things often falling on the full-time staff. But yes, I do expect them to do more than their core hours, because we're a team, and we all have to share the load - it's just obviously I expect them to share a lot less of the load proportionately

Completely agree with @NurseButtercup YABVVVU to expect people to work when you're not paying them. Am actually appalled at this attitude that people should work for free