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?

If it's later on in the day, I tend to use schedule send for emails so they are sent between 7am and 7pm.

My work has a culture of not normalising endless email communication out of hours, which is positive.

I had to read the OP twice at least to see what the problem was.

I reply to emails when it suits me.

If you get an email notification in the evening it can really play on your mind as you don't know if it's about something trivial that could be dealt with in moments or a really serious matter. In the end it's hard not to open just to check so you can relax. Using schedule send ensures it's received by someone in 'work mode'.

Equally I shut my work email down when not working so I don't get notifications. The responsibility works both ways

Some of my colleagues do this. I think it is extremely patronising.

I feel like replying "Thanks, but I will manage my time as I see fit. I don't need your permission or guidance."

If you don't want to get email notifications in the evening just turn off notifications. It is not the senders fault if you can't use email features.

I have email on my phone and on my laptop. I use pull rather than push for fetching email on my phone so I don't see the email unless I go in to the app. On my laptop the only notification I show is the badge indicating the number of unread emails as when I'm working I don't want email notifications popping up on screen.

It’s very simple to turn off notifications for certain apps ar set times of the day, both on a phone/tablet or a computer.

There is no valid reason in 2023 to be worrying about when you send something in case it disturbs the recipient. If they can’t manage their notifications that is their problem, not the senders.

For me, work notifications come in 07:00 to 18:30 only. I can change it in seconds any time of any day, don’t even have to pick the phone up, just ask Siri.

Yes, me too. I don't find it helpful or considerate at all. It's rather smug.

I did this once and felt awful when they replied. I apologised when so next saw them and they says it was fine and they wouldn't have replied if is was a problem.

Emails are like letters, when they arrive it is up to the person receiving them to decide when to open.

You could mention it to her if it bothers you still, but it is really no big deal.

Or turn off your notifications

I'd say something like "Thank you so much for replying to my email so quickly-I really wasn't expecting anything so soon!"

Wow, I'm really surprised at some of these replies, clearly I have a lot to learn and hope I haven't been offending people!

I would have thought you email when it suits you and they reply when it suits them.

Yes that's a useful line and is very widely used where I work. I get emails sent at 2am sometimes, it doesn't bother me because I know they don't expect a response until I start working.

To me, the whole point of emails are that they are sent when relevant and convenient to the sender and read when convenient to the recipient.

But people can just not look. I put my work phone away in the evening and my laptop is turned off. My mum is a teacher and would never know if she got an email after about 6pm, because she's not looking.

I don't think you can look at your emails and then complain that you've seen you've received an email.

I can see why people find this patronising, but in my case I've only ever seen it on the emails of clients dealing with multiple suppliers. I think it's helpful. 20 years ago if a client had emailed at night and I'd been up working, I'd have felt compelled to reply. The stupidity is if I wasn't working, it would have been just fine until the morning.

Thank God we're all a little bit more human these days. Some good has come from Covid and the Snowflake generation's demands!

Agree with this.

Some of my colleagues do this. I think it is extremely patronising.

I feel like replying "Thanks, but I will manage my time as I see fit. I don't need your permission or guidance."

I think it depends who is sending the email. I work with auditors at a big 4 company. If a partner emails a junior associate at 10pm, they might feel like they have to reply. Having this note in the email signature (which a lot of people do where I work) just means you don't need to add it each time you think there might be an issue with the power dynamics. A lot of people work flexibly or part time, and so this being a common note just adds to the culture that you don't have to be working when you're off.

That’s what normal people do and think. Don't worry. Mumsnet is not normal.

As a lecturer you have more free time to reply to emails than an actual teacher. An actual teacher doesn't have the luxury of being able to reply to any within their paid office hours, because they're teaching.

And as I said, it doesn't work just leaving them because they turn into 50 emails very quickly. I don't think you get a lot of emails from parents.

Whats the etiquette issue here?

Are you saying it was bad etiquette for you to send a draft email by mistake rather than finishing it? That sounds like a mistake, wheres the bad etiquette?

Surely you're not saying it was bad etiquette for her to reply to you, I dont get this?

Etiquette is an annoying word to keep writing also.

But how would the OP waiting till working hours change that? If the recipient ignored it till this morning that's the same outcome as receiving it this morning. Teacher either chooses to answer at night in which case she has one less email to answer the next day or she can chose to ignore it till working hours or OP can chose not to send it till working hours.

OP sending it in the evening gives the teacher more flexibility about when to answer it rather than less.

As a lecturer I have a significantly longer working day than a teacher. And no, I don't have "free" time during my working hours. I may not be teaching every hour I'm contracted to work (and neither are secondary teachers BTW) but I am working on research projects, managing supervisions, working in various administrative roles etc.

I don't see the relevance of who is sending the emails. No, parents don't email me. Students, colleagues, research partners, management, etc all do.

Anyway, how I choose to manage my emails was simply an example, not a directive. It's up to each individual how they manage their workload. If a teacher wants to reply in the evening, that's their choice. If not, they can reply during the day, either before starting or after finishing teaching. Equally, it's up up me how I manage my workload. If I want to send an email in the evening, that's up to me. The recipient can deal with it in their own time.

The standard of teaching and support is so much better at school and sixth form. I don't know why so many lecturers think so much of themselves, the good ones I had were as rare as hen's teeth, the others clearly didn't want to be teaching, weren't good at it, and just wanted to be on sabbaticals or basking in their own superiority. It's a shame school and college teachers aren't paid more.