Or is this terrible etiquette!!!

[lizrta]

I feel terrible.

I drafted an email for DS' reception teacher at 20:40 this evening - but accidentally pressed send! I was hoping she'd pick it up in the morning, but she has just replied.

This is really bad form isn't it. Should I say something at drop off tomorrow?

I send a lot of work emails in the evening as that's when I have chance to sit down with the laptop. I was asked by a colleague do I have in my email signature that I don't expect people to reply outside their normal working hours. I replied no, I expect them to have the common sense to realise that on their own!

Send your emails any time you want, as long as they are politely worded.

But what if the person does their work in the evening? I find this kind of attitude discriminatory towards working parents!

My kids’ school asks parents to use the ‘scheduled send’ function so that emails are delivered within set hours (something like between 7am and 7pm weekdays). I think this is a good idea.

I also work in a school and we use emails in the evening for sharing planning or similar. It can play on your mind if you get an email about, say, an issue that needs addressing but nothing can be done until the morning.

Huh?

I'm a working parent which is why I email at night.

I don't expect a teacher to do so (although I'm very aware that many do)

It's fine OP. If she wasn't happy to reply she would have left it.

I used to do a lot of teacher work quite late at night, and sometimes emailed colleagues at midnight. Obvs not expecting them to reply till the next day - tho I had one lovely colleague who was a night owl like me and always replied!

Exactly

I don't know where the idea came from that there has to be an instant response.

I treat it like post. Check it daily and reply within a suitable time frame.

At work I am often in meetings back to back , I'm baffled by the people who don't even check my (open ) diary before chasing a reply.

This.

Totally up to the recipient when they choose to read e-mails.
this particular person chose to read it then, and chose to reply then.

Get a grip.

Most of the people in this thread are only thinking about one single email. If half the parents in the class do the same thing, that's 15 emails, and then potentially another 15 emails in follow ups. Add on actual work emails and all the other outside of hours teaching tasks, that's the whole night gone. And that assumes a primary school teacher with one class, not a secondary teacher with several years of classes.

Teachers aren't replying because they "want" to, it's because they end up with a massive backlog very quickly if they don't, especially with the whole "did you get my email" thing some people do if you don't reply within a few hours.

I would apologise/acknowledge you appreciate their time, personally.

What on earth would you say? You've done nothing wrong. I send emails when it is convenient for me to send them. Bears no relation to when I expect a response.

Nope. I am thinking of how email has been designed to be used. Getting 15 emails in a day or even 30 emails in a day is not exactly a lot of emails. Even if it was, the teacher will get those 15/30 emails regardless of when they are sent. They can and should be ignored until a convenient time. it's up to the recipient to decide what that convenient time is.

And anyone who follows up with a "did you get my email" within a couple of hours if they haven't had a reply deserves to be ignored.

I am a lecturer. I do not reply to student emails outside normal office hours other than in exceptional circumstances. I do however, frequently reply to colleagues and others outside office hours. My choice. When the email is sent is irrelevant.

Nothing to feel bad about. Its perfectly normal to send emails at night when it's convenient. It's up to the recipient if they check their emails or not, especially work ones! Think no more about it.

This. It's not your fault she chose to read and respond at night. Just forget about it, I doubt she has given it a seconds thought.

Much ado about nothing! I thought you were going to say you sent it by mistake when it had some sort of criticism in it that you didn’t intend to send.

And the person who sends emails at night that start ‘Good morning’ - why not just set a delayed response for the following day?

I totally disagree it’s ’rude to email out of hours’. What a load of nonsense.

It’s entirely up to the recipient as to when they choose to read and reply to their emails. There is no demand to reply to an email simply by virtue of when it is sent.

People take time to write emails when they can, people reply to emails when they can. It goes no deeper than that.

As an aside, I received an email one evening recently.

At the foot of the email it said:

"Please note whilst it suits me to email now, I don’t expect a response outside of your working hours".

I like that and have thought about using it myself!

I'm a teacher and have opted not to access emails outside of my working hours. That said, I did have an email conversation with ds1 teacher yesterday evening. I didn't expect or ask for this, it just so happened that way.

its the responsibility of the person receiving the email to check it when they want. A sender shouldn’t have to worry. The same should apply to text, WhatsApp, messenger etc

Unfortunately so many people seem incapable of using the do not disturb or personal focus functions on their phones that you do sometimes have to consider if it’s an appropriate time to send.

With all the options available to a person to manage their time and interruptions these days the onus really should be on the receiver not to be disturbed if they don’t want to be, and in such a hectic world we should be able to ping off emails and messages whenever it suits 24/7.

Wouldn’t give it a second thought emails can be read and responded to in whatever timeframe the receiver chooses

they must be used to it as nighttime is the only time a lot of working parents have to deal with stuff

I know that you pressed send in error, but it stuns me how many people don’t regularly realise how to delay the sending of an email. It’s quite straightforward on Outlook

Why would I delay the sending of an email? People can download it, read it, respond to it whenever they want.

When they do that is their issue, not mine.

I’m a teacher. The majority of parent emails are sent in the evening as most parents are at work during the day. If I am working then I will often reply as that gets it out the way. If I’m not working, I won’t see it and will reply later.

Yeah, obviously you can run your own life by your own rules, 🤔
I find professionally if something needs doing tomorrow for example I time the email so they get it first thing tomorrow. Maybe it’s just my colleagues!

I get emails all the times of the day and night.They are meant to be sent whenever and responded to whenever is convenient. No need to worry.

I always add this to emails I send after-hours, especially if it’s someone I think might feel obligated to reply (like a junior colleague).

That said, I don’t think OP has done anything wrong, it’s fine to email any time and expect people to reply at their convenience.