to worry my manager will think I am incompetent

[Piggieinthemiddle]

because I emailed him at 3am? I was working very very late last night to get something finished for him to look at this morning. I emailed it with a delayed sending time of 9:00am, but apparently it did not work and had a 3am time stamp.

I am worrying that I look like I cannot do my job in my assigned hours, or (the truth!!) that I am not organised and I should have prioritised this over the past couple of days, which I did not.

DH says I'm being ridiculous and if anything it is positive that I am working late to ensure it is up to standard, but this is not common practice in my workplace at all, and I am worried it will reflect badly on me. My workplace is very big on well-being, and working late does not fit with this culture.

Actually it’s something that does need discussing and raising so hopefully it will get flagged up - perhaps you need some support in prioritising work load as working till 3am isn’t normal nor is it ok.

I would be concerned as your manager that you’re not managing your time properly if you’re needing to work until 3am or that you have too much work and you’re overwhelmed but didn’t tell me

I think you need to take some time out this weekend if possible and to relax. You are over thinking this massively.

"I'm struggling to sleep right now so I was looking over this piece of work in the middle of the night, no, it doesn't happen usually" - if he mentions anything

Could always say you forgot to send it and remembered during the night so just logged on to send it's but your really do need to sort your work load and/or time management out

I’d be concerned if any of my reports were working til 3am and it would likely prompt a chat about what happened and how I could help them prioritise or manage their workload better. That said, I wouldn’t think they were incompetent, I’d just be worried they were overstretched and would want to help.

Could you just feign ignorance - ‘oh that’s weird I tried to send that message at 5:30pm yesterday and it wouldn’t send and went to my outbox. Must have sent at that weird time this morning, how strange!’

though I do agree that perhaps your workload or stress levels need to be addressed

Try not to worry but use this as an opportunity to discuss your workload with your manager and seek some support in better managing your time.
No manager worth their salt wants their staff working at 3am and struggling without knowing about it.