AIBU to think this is a normal and acceptable email policy?

[SamSamT]

Hi all,

I was conducting induction for some new starters at work this week; and yesterday we went over some minor policies. One of them being our email policy.

Just for context; we are a medium sized business. Standard office environment with your standard business hours. Since the pandemic we only need to be in the office 2 days a week; but are expected to be available/contactable Mon-Fri during business hours.

Our email policy is basically:

• You can send emails whenever you want. You’re encouraged to use schedule send it outside of business hours but not a problem if you don’t.
• The quickest you can expect someone to read an email you send is by the end of the day. On the flip side you are expected to at least read anything in your inbox before you finish for the day.
• If you need to let someone know something before the end of the day, you need to ring or go see them.
• The quickest you can expect someone to reply to an email is 24hrs (not including weekends). On the flip side, you should always try to reply to emails within 24 hours even if it’s a quick “Got your email, I’ll get the info to you by xxx”
• If you need a reply off someone in less than 24hrs you need to ring them or go see them.
• There is no expectation to read emails out of office hours. Emails sent out for office hours will be considered to have been sent at 8am the following business day for the purposes of read and reply times.

We formalised the policy about 4/5 years ago, as we found expectations varied between managers.

Several of the new starters felt it was a bit invasive they could be receiving emails outside of business hours even if they didn’t have to read them until the end of the next business day. A few of the new starters also thought the expectation to have read all your emails before you sign off was a asking a bit much.

Genuinely interested in your thoughts and to see if we’ve somehow veered off from the corporate norm?

Thanks!

It's overly prescriptive, and requiring everyone to reply within 24 hours and read all emails before they leave for the day is way over the top.

Completely normal to me to send and receive emails out of hours. Specifying that people aren't required to respond out of hours is sensible.

It depends on how many emails are sent at 4.30? If you want emails replied to within 24 hours why does an email sent at 4.30 need to be read within the next hour. It sounds like the policy will recreate people excessive checking emails so they don’t get stuck at the end of the day at work. This will reduce productivity.

It’s a bit much - how old are your employees, 12?

NHS - doesn't apply to me as I'm a minion, but during induction they told us emails can be sent and actioned at any time, but that is entirely your choice. The expectation is that they will be handled during office hours only, and we were even encouraged not to sign in outside those hours. You are expected to respond in reasonable time, but that doesn't have to be within 24 hours. If we all responded with acknowledgement emails, some inboxes would be overwhelmed, so they're not necessary unless the sender specifically requests that. As you say, if it's urgent, we're expected to phone, during office hours only.

The policy is overly prescriptive. But with regard to out of office hrs emails, some people need the flexibility to send emails at different times. There are all sorts of reasons for this - part timers who maybe leave early but need to follow up same day/those who travel etc/a work emergency. I agree guidelines should be in place so it isn’t abused but it’s a good exercise in boundaries for others. Simply don’t read work emails out of office hours and dont reply!

It is entirely up to an individual if they want to open emails in the evening to check facts, compose replies, read information etc

what absolutely must NOT happen in that time is new emails arriving, while you are reviewing previous emails.

unacceptable, selfish unprofessional, intrusive and downright rude

I have email notifications turned on in the evening during Exams purely for the benefit of the occasional GCSE or A level candidate having a panic and needing support.

I would be furious if anyone else intruded on my evening by emailing me at that time

we had a deputy head who seemed to think it was somehow clever and show iffy to get into competitive early hours emails, just to prove she was working harder than everybody else. Infantile behaviour that quite rightly earned her a warning for unprofessional conduct

I would be furious if anyone else intruded on my evening by emailing me at that time

Don't be so ridiculous. Just don't read it.

On thé after-hours emails, I would much rather get emails outside work hours than have people do delayed send and then end up with a whonking great tranche of emails all arriving together at 9am.

If you’ve got a number of people sending emails outside standard work hours, then either:

• people are overworked and can’t get through their emails in the hours provided;


• generally people can complete their work within their standard hours, but senior staff need to work longer hours;


• people are choosing to work outside standard hours, because that suits their other commitments;


• people are choosing to work outside standard hours because they feel they’re expected to;


• and so on.

All of those issues are better dealt with directly. Adapt workload pressures, make it explicit people aren’t expected to work/reply to emails outside their normal hours, allow flexible working patterns where that’s possible. Getting everyone to do delayed send tackles none of the actual issues, just poorly papers them over.

What?
For many businesses that simply will stop business running-we live in a globally connected world. In most businesses people are sending emails , by default, over a 24 hour period depending on which time zone they are being sent from- so someone sends me in uk an email in their working hours from China - it’ll arrive in my inbox between midnight and 10am normally. My colleagues in China weren’t about to say I can’t send this to Emily just now cos she’s in bed…they’d just send and expect me to manage my time. You would literally stop a business as no one would be able to send emails to groups of recipients based across multiple time zones.
not sure where you work but that is certainly not typical

Overall, this feels relatively reasonable but honestly it would make me concerned about the culture of the company I had just joined. The reason being that I think I might feel as though I’ve just signed up to read and write emails for a living, which wouldn’t thrill me.

Emails are a “to do” list written by other people, often people who don’t know your workload. This is especially true if they have a 24 hour deadline. Essentially, unless an employee gets very few emails a day at your company, it feels like they will essentially be managed in their work by the chaos of other people’s emailing habits. Not very empowering! if you must have a policy, I think giving a week to answer an email is more reasonable.

What I do really like about the policy is the emphasis of picking up the phone if it’s urgent. I wonder if a policy which emphasises short efficient conversations, over emails, might be a way to go not just for urgent tasks but most tasks? As in, instead of strict rules about emails, emphasise that phone is preferred? The benefit would be that at least if someone can’t get through on the phone/teams they know that the person hasn’t got the message yet, and it also helps with morale and connecting the team to each other. For internal emails you might normalise bullet points of conversations post phone call, without too formal an intro etc.
Emails are the equivalent of duelling monologues often, instead of a back and forth, I think that’s part of why people find them hard to deal with. Whereas a quick conversation, you can gauge quickly what someone’s priorities are, what their capacity is and you can flesh out why a given request/task should be prioritised over another, also it’s much easier to work out misunderstandings or to clarify what’s needed.
I can’t believe I just pitched the benefits of “talking” as a mode of communication 😂 but this is where we’re at.

This. I think I would very quickly get cold feet about a new job if I was presented with a policy like this. I'd expect to be trusted to prioritise and manage my workload as I saw fit.
Do people get disciplined if they don't comply?
Holding "I got this and will reply later" emails are a huge waste of time for the sender and receipient.

I think people complaining about being sent emails outside of their working hours (with no expectation you’ll read or reply til the next day) are ridiculous for several reasons:

• people have different working hours
• some people are busier than you and may prefer to finish something off after work and get it to you
• some people work flexibly around other life stuff
• it is more than possible to turn off your emails when you’re not working, it’s not like they’re turning up at your house or phoning you

One of my junior colleagues had a complaint once from someone that they’d been emailed out of hours - well buddy we’re on the other side of the world from you and the joy of email is we don’t have to be awake/at work at the same time! Presumably they thought the poor junior should wait til our 10pm to email them.

some people are busier than you and may prefer to finish something off after work and get it to you Often those sending emails late are actually just a bit shit at managing their own time and have no respect for their own work-life balance.

We don’t have an email policy, we just trust people to do their jobs. It works.

In my workplace we have to reply to emails from customers within one working day. There's no policy for internal emails.

It does seem quite prescriptive written down like that, but tbh it's a pretty good reflection of informal email policy at my work (I work within the legal team in a big corporate). I don't see anything remotely unreasonable there - I suppose it depends on the workplace and nature of work?

It’s probably a mixture, or as others have said some people are in meetings all day and catch up with emails on the train home etc. either way it’s their lookout and isn’t extending my working day. Had a previous boss who would always head off at 4 to pick up her kids and then catch up on end of day stuff at about 8-9pm. Didn’t bother me and I thought it worked well for her.

We have no emails between 7pm and 7am and reply within 24 hours (working days).

We used to send at all hours with the acceptance/knowledge that there was no requirement to look at them, but people do and it does mean people don't switch off properly, especially certain personality types. I'd say this single move has vastly improved wellbeing.

I don't get the read before the end of the day thing. If the expectation is you reply within 24 hours and call if you need an earlier response, why does it matter when they're read?

It really depends on what the company/organisation does, though.

I used to work in a high pressure sales environment. Bottom line and closing deals was everything. People in the back office had to pass on sales leads within the same working day if received before 12, by 12 next day if received in the afternoon. (they came in by letter, phone, fax, later email - earlier by telex).

Sales calls had to be returned within 24 hours. etc etc. There were also turnaround times on contracts, complaints, whatever. People had to know how to prioritise, and yes, juniors/new hires received through training in this.

Where i work now there are clear expectations of efficiency, but meetings? my boss got told in no uncertain terms to stop scheduling regular team calls at 6.30pm as many people had already done 10 hours by then. (exceptional circs allow exceptional activities etc)

There is zero expectation to stop what you're doing and answer emails. If it is urgent, it's a phone call. There is less than zero (as in "don't do this") to reply to mails while you are on vacation, off sick, or have finished work for the day/weekend. (nobody would get fired for it, but there would be words about work/life balance and burn out).

I think it is reasonable to point out all these things to new-hires, to give them a feel for the culture of the company. Our CEO is an insomniac. He often writes company wide missives on things that occur to him in the middle of the night. There is no obligation to have read them by a set time, unless he requires an answer (and then he'll give a reasonable deadline). It is marvellously "relaxed" compared to other places I've worked.

I am struggling to understand if the issue is the email policy or the use of personal device policy

surely companies that are using emails, phones, messaging and texting etc should be providing their employees with the devices specifically to do that? Why are employees being expected to give out their personal device contact numbers/emails.? This is where the danger lies of blurring the boundaries between home and work. In my view that does become a breach of duty of care for health and safety. No one wants to go onto their home device at 10pm and see an “urgent” request that’s come in 30 mins after their leaving time and ignore it- that is extremely hard to do. It leads to hyper vigilance . It causes stress. People abuse it simply because they know individuals will still be using their personal devices after they have left worked. The whole set up is a high risk strategy for numerous claims of stress related illness. Employees must be in control of their personal life outside working hours. And that means a physical boundary between home and work.

companies must provide their employees with company specific devices. All company communications must go through specific company email addresses and phone numbers.

that way you don’t need complicated email policies, phone policies, or complicated use of social media policies. A simple policy about use of company devices can be achieved including that people have absolute right to turn off their work devices outside working hours unless they are specifically paid to be “on call” or is part of the expectations of the role at say a senior level that they are compensated for in terms of base pay.

as I said in earlier email, policies that stop people sending outside working hours are daft and unworkable. People live and work across time zones. Even for uk based business, someone could be legitimately working late or early by choice (eg flexiable working that day for an appointment) and they need to send email while they are working on that stuff…to stop them sending at that time is just inefficient and silly- the sender should have common sense to know that the recipient won’t read till next day or hours later.

your policies, OP, seem to be covering up or compensating for a far bigger issue. A systemic abuse of peoples boundaries between work and home based on cost cutting policies to permit or insist on individuals using their own devices.

I would be furious if anyone else intruded on my evening by emailing me at that time

You are ridiculous and stupid. Obviously, you don’t log on to work or open your work emails in the evening. If you choose to do so, you’re an idiot.

I think the idea that no one should be allowed to send you an email outside your working hours is absolutely laughable. If your job is one in which you don't have to check email outside your contracted hours, just don't check it. What next, no one can leave you a voicemail or post you a letter? I hate the term "snowflake" but I'm afraid it's one I'm tempted to use about this.

Very micro-managery. How about everyone handles their emails that is the most fit to their role. And if someone is not doing it then the manager can do their job and manage that employee.

I understand policies for externals. Forexample customer service email has reply within 3 business days etc. But base on op it's not like that?

The over prescriptive micro management would be a hard no from me. Adults need some degree of ownership of tasks to work productively. Their skill to assess and apply appropriate responses in a reasonable time frame will either be supported by training / experience.

A 24 hour time frame is not reasonable - if you want all emails responded to within this then have a company auto response option. Or have a shared inbox which can be accessed by many staff members.

Are you using the email as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management system) - because it sounds like you want that oversight and control - so maybe it is the tool rather than the process that needs considering ?

Absolutely agree with this. Or even better get off your arse and walk up 2 flights of stairs or whatever to talk to the person face to face.
I once had a colleague send me emails who sat opposite me! Soon put a stop to that.
i think companies need to do far more about defining how emails should be written . E.g. the title should include whether it is something needing action, for information, for preparation for future meeting etc…makes it easier to prioritise emails lists. Content should be summarised in brief bullet points. Etc. best advice I had was from one of my managers who said that most people gave up reading an email after 5 sentences , so get down the points in less and ideally bullet point. And say what you are contacting them for at the very start.