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!

Yes, this is reasonable. For example at the beginning of the pandemic, it might have been necessary to tell people by email that they should take their laptop home just in case something changed overnight or during the weekend, which it often did, it wouldn't be practical to phone everyone individually and many businesses weren't up to speed with Teams etc to have a group call, but that's a minor point in the policy and not one that makes the whole thing invalid.

I agree with this and that’s how it works in our workplace. Urgent emails however are used sparingly - I have sent two such emails since September and received one to give you an idea. It’s mainly when we have a whole team event going on and there are last minute changes such as room changes. Rather than demanding urgent work be produced.

Yeah but that doesn't need to be in a policy. It is a reasonable expectation that if someone is in the office and they are sent an email they read it. It is called doing your job, you really shouldn't need a policy for it.
What is the purpose of the policy - is it so that is someone says they didn't read an email you deem urgent then you can discipline them? Well you can do that anyway if they aren't doing their job properly.
Unless you are talking about extremely junior (and fairly incompetent) staff this is micro-managing to a ridiculous level.

Also you can work in your emails offline so you can access your existing ones without new ones coming through if you can’t cope with that

To be clear - I think having the policy is ridiculous but it is not unreasonable that employees read all emails that come to them when they are in the office - assuming we are not talking hundreds of emails.
I think the telling people when they can send emails and having to respond to emails in 24 hours is really stupid.

That’s not the point. It is intrusive. It is harassment. It is extremely rude

FGS get yourself a grip. Set your own boundaries and don't read them.

hence why it would be a disciplinary matter in many ( probably most, ime) workplaces

That's my laugh for the day!

Of course it is a disciplinary matter.

It is not in any workplace I've ever worked in.

I’m assuming the reason you are getting so defensive is because you do this yourself and don’t like having it pointed out how unprofessional and rude it is.

So working flexibly is unprofessional and rude? I email and sometimes that is early and sometimes that is late. However I have no expectation of a response outside standard office hours, nor would any of my colleagues feel they needed to respond outside work hours. I cannot see how working flexibly is unprofessional or rude.

you may well have staff with their emails open working at home because they have emailed themselves information they need for planning, documents they need to edit, etc etc.

And? Just don't read the emails that are there. Concentrate on what you want and then close down. Have you no self discipline?

they are entitled to work quietly in their own home without you imposing yourself on them because you think your do big and important you don’t have to organise yourself or control yourself for the welfare of your colleagues.

How am I imposing myself on anyone? I am working flexibly. Most colleagues will have switched off or not yet switched on so they'd have no idea I had emailed. Even if they did, they would ignore the email until they are working.

@SamSamT Just wondering, you said that this policy has been in place for 4/5 years, does it work? Does it currently achieve what it was created to achieve? Are things better than before the policy was introduced? If so, in what ways?

I would love to know the answer to these questions, but also, the answers might help new starters understand what benefits such a policy has how it improves rather than complicates their working day.

That's ridiculously prescriptive and micro managing! I'm a litigator and don't have a policy like this imposed on me. Employees in our work place are trusted to manage their own inbox as they see fit.
I may spend all day drafting lengthy documents and not get round to reviewing every email that's arrived during the day. A brief glance at the names of the sender will often suffice and can wait until the next working day.

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.

They can't expect to not receive any emails after working hours. If it's their work email address how would they even know anyway until they logged in the next day? And how would you stop clients emailing after a certain time? You can't.

The second part I agree with them on though. I've not RTFT yet but I used to work in law and we could have hundreds of emails a day all with things that needed work doing on them. No way could I have completed my work AND read every single email I received that day before I went home. We set up automatic replies to let people know we'd received their emails but we weren't expected to respond or read them by the end of the day.

I think it’s a very micro managed policy. I would assume it’s for a call centre type role where there are a large number of less experienced/part time/rota staff?

I would raise my eyebrows if told when and how to reply to emails tbh. I would presume they employed me because I was competent enough to assess and prioritise my workload as I saw fit.

That indicates poor

Poor planning by management surely.

last minute all staff emails that will change your day the next day in ways that can’t be accommodated in a morning email
check should be a truly exceptional occurrence.

Of course it is a disciplinary matter. I’m assuming the reason you are getting so defensive is because you do this yourself and don’t like having it pointed out how unprofessional and rude it is.

It's not a disciplinary matter. You are being ridiculous.
I have a note at the bottom of my email explaining that the email was sent at time convenient to me and there is no expectation to respond out of business hours.
If I didn't deal with my emails on evenings and weekends then they'd never get seen. I'm sure my colleagues (and my students) would prefer me to actually respond, even if it's in a weekend, then ignore the email completely.

you may well have staff with their emails open working at home because they have emailed themselves information they need for planning, documents they need to edit, etc etc.

Then they ignore my email. I make it clear there is no need to respond out of business hours.

they are entitled to work quietly in their own home without you imposing yourself on them because you think your do big and important you don’t have to organise yourself or control yourself for the welfare of your colleagues.

Okay, if I'm teaching all day and spend days travelling or in meetings then when should I respond to emails? Should I just ignore them?
I'm not imposing anything on anyone - I don't manage anyone myself so nobody should feel beholden to my working pattern but as a senior academic with a heavy teaching load and who does a significant amount of international travel I'm often not in a position to respond to emails between 9-5 uk time.

m I can imagine what the recipients of your out of hours emails think of you!

They're pleased I've responded in a timely manner!!

I agree with those saying it is prescriptive and actually quite worrying if you can't manage an inbox. Did you have other policies like, 'how to manage your break', the amount of coffee you should consume in the working day, whether to have carbs for lunch, in case of a sugar spike and the effects on productivity from the slump in the afternoon. Indeed, that could cross over in to the email policy and the impact on checking emails by the end of the day!

Hi all,

I’m on break now so can reply in a little more detail.

I accept this seems to be more prescriptive than standard and is something I’ll bare in mind.

what I wrote in the post wasn’t that actual communications policy; just my summation.

The reason we have a “read by end of the day” policy is because we do occasionally have changes to business that will affect the next day. If the change affects the current working day it’ll be phone calls instead. This happens maybe once a month due to the nature of the business.

The reply within 24 hours to acknowledge is only a “try to” and only apply to emails that need a reply.

We put this policy in place because we had:
a) a lot of “first jobbers”
b) we found different project managers had different expectations and we wanted to have a consistent expectation.

As I said, all but the senior staff spend the day at a desk (when in the office) and not in meetings. For most staff there is just a weekly team meeting.

a manager did email me in a Saturday a couple of months ago. I deleted it unread. I was annoyed but that was a one off. Very rare occurrence. If she does it again I will complain

Now THAT is a disciplinary matter!! How entitled!

As for allegations of harassment.... Jesus, have a word with yourself!

I'm glad to work for somewhere that doesn't need an email policy.

The reply within 24 hours to acknowledge is only a “try to” and only apply to emails that need a reply

Would it not just be easier to have an across the board automatic reply saying something like

'Thank you for your email, someone will respond as soon as possible.

If your matter is urgent, please call 123456789

Kind regards,
Eyebags
CEO of Imaginary Co. Ltd'

It's not hard to set up and means employees don't have to mess about replying the above to all of their emails.

Imagine having the time to care about ridiculous shit like this.

Just ignore it and reply when you're next in the office you bloody drama llama.

If the culture where you work is so bad that you have had to write a policy on when/how to read and respond to emails, then I think your new starters should run for the hills........

Sorry @brookstar that was obviously to the PP you quoted ha.

Haha no worries!

Having to read every email same day is unnecessarily micromanaging - and pointless if a reply doesn't have to be sent until 24 hours.

I would say more reasonable would be:

• All emails must be reviewed and response sent within 48 working hours, if reply required.
• Any department circulars - with Subject Department Circular or similar so easily recognisable - must be read same day.
• Anything requiring a response more urgently than 48 hours then contact should be made by phone or Teams or similar.
• Emails can be sent at any time.

Can't understand the issue with receiving emails out of hours - assuming not to their personal email. Someone can email me at 2am on Xmas Day if they want, my laptop is closed when I'm not working so they'll get a reply when I read it.