To think that emailing your colleagues from hols is a toxic behaviour

[Isthatrue]

I have a couple of people in my team (Managers) who are unable to switch off when on leave and constantly email and send message on Teams even when on leave. I am not talking about 1 follow up on an important matter but more of a proper back and forth on stuff that can easily wait and doesn’t need them to be involved. I can’t stand it! I think it’s a) sad to see they are unable to switch off from work and relax and b) creates a toxic culture for which some people think it is expected to be connected even if technically on leave.

Am I the only one to feel p.ss.d off about this?

Don't be silly.

The increased flexibility of remote working is a huge help to parents (especially mothers, given that in practice we're the ones who do the lion's share of childcare). I generally have to leave the office promptly for family reasons but can then log back on at home and work in the evening and I know lots of other people who do the same. The idea that you'd assume people do this to "feel important" is ridiculous. As for the people on this thread actively trying to sabotage other people's work by refusing to reply to emails on the basis that they weren't sent during the sender's working hours (but were sent during the recipient's)- words fail me.

exactly, @MandyRiceDavies Why would a person not log on to their email regularly at the time they log on, and simply deal with what's in front of them?

I’ve seen people diagnosed with cancer, come into work because they think they are so indispensable that nobody else can do their workload.

That strikes me as unfair (unless you're talking about people who come into work against medical advice):

People who are diagnosed with cancer/ other serious illness and come into work rarely do so because they 'think they are so indispensable'. They generally do so for one or both of two reasons:

(1) Continuing to live as normal a life as possible for as long as possible helps to keep them sane.

(2) They need the money! Bills don't cease to need to be paid when someone has a serious illness; in fact expenses often go up.

But if someone sends me an email at 2am I don't have to read it at 2am it is email it gets read when I choose to read it, it is not rocket science

But if someone sends me an email at 2am I don't have to read it at 2am it is email it gets read when I choose to read it, it is not rocket science

I received a (relatively important but not urgent) email at 7pm last night, with five other people in the conversation. I didn’t see it until just now when I logged on 8.45. Between 7pm and 8.45am everyone else had responded to the thread and been involved in an online discussion.

Luckily I’m not bothered about appearing overly keen or angling for promotion at the moment. So I don’t really care if I come across as less dedicated than the others on the email.

But when there’s a critical mass of people in a workplace emailing out of office hours it’s naive to expect it not to impact on the expectations in that workplace. Even if they are implicit and not overtly stated.