Work today to avoid stress tonorrow?

[Member869894]

More a WWYD really. I have a stressful job and really should work today to get ahead of the email hell tomorrow but don't want to gi w up my bank holiday Monday afternoon. Shall i work today and be less stressed tomorrow or not work today and be really stressed tomorrow?

I did 3 hours this morning. Now I'm relaxing. I think you should do the same. You know it will make the rest of the week easier.

I'd go with work today however in my experience that still won't make tomorrow any less stressful because 9/10 times some new nonsense pops up to add to the mayhem

I'm going to do a bit this afternoon for the same reason as work is manic at the moment. But I am going to set myself limits - start at 5pm, end by 8:30pm. Oh and I'm going to get a takeaway for dinner as a reward for putting in the extra!

Do a bit and put stuff in your Outbox but don't connect to send and definitely don't show as available in Teams!

I am not going to do anything today. It's my day off and I am not paid for logging in. If I wanted to work, I had an option to work and be paid.
My team knows that I only check my emails twice a day, that way I can get on with things and not be bothered with something that is not urgent (and 90% of all emails I get are sent to the whole team and isn't something I need to action).
I have a couple of large reports to write but again, this is going to be done in the time which I already allocated across the week. If I chose to do it today, this time is only going to be taken up with other tasks so it's not like I am saving myself any more time there.

This.

I'd spend part of this afternoon looking for alternative job options. The options you have should not come to the ones you have.

I did some work today. It depends how much you need a break though. Don't feel forced to work holidays, it sets a bad precedent.

Everybody I know at work who insists upon checking their emails in the evening and weekends just ends up doing hours of work for free. And it sets a precedent where 'Laura does extra time/doesn't leave emails until the last minute working hours, you know'. Fuck that.

Stuff to do just expands to fill the time you give it - and everything that's dealt with unpaid is one more thing that is assumed to not be a problem by management because it's been done, hasn't it?

Thanks all (opens laptop with a sigh...)

I should have added - my work is very flexible. As long as my work gets done, it doesn't matter when I do it. Also I work with volunteer community groups and lots of them email in the evenings when they have finished their own jobs. It's not always a matter of not being able to fit in all of your work, it just means that work doesn't necessarily neatly fit into the 9-5. So catching up on emails tonight means I can finish early during the week if I wish. I certainly don't believe in overworking or anything like that. I just wanted to make that clear.

I did a couple of hours to get ahead of a short and busy week. Depends on seniority as I get paid a higher salary to get things done (and I want to make life a bit easier this week). I wouldn't expect my junior staff to log on today.

I'm going into my last 2 weeks until Maternity leave and have stacks to get through if I don't want to spend my last couple of days in a manic tizz, so I'm typing this from my desk in the office. I'm just about to leave after 2 hours of doing end of month reports so they're off tomorrow's list.

I therefore vote for work a bit today, if it's going to make you less stressed tomorrow.

I did a bit today. Partly because I’ve been off sick some of last week though

I spent years doing that, OP. No more. The stress and lack of recognition for my above and beyond efforts became too much, so I got out. I have a much better work life balance in the job I moved to.