Enthusiastic employee

[Tomicca]

one of my direct reports is very enthusiastic at her job. She is supposed to be on annual leave just now however, she has agreed to attend a meeting with another organisation during her leave without checking with me first. She has done this a couple of times I think she feels like she has to do these things even though I’ve asked her not to email after hours or on her holiday. I don’t want others to feel they have to stay in touch on their time off. How do I rein her in without dampening her enthusiasm?

Difficult to know without knowing the job / industry and expectation.

When I was young and keen, I did lots of courses and meetings in my own time, because if improved my skill base and improved the work I did. I did it for my own satisfaction and not for brownie points. I had the time, I had the energy, and I made a choice to do that. I wasn't expecting anyone else to do it.

Even when I got old and wizened, there were times I'd work the odd evening or a few hours at the weekend because I knew that was going to make my life easier for the following week.

I think this is the difference between someone in what is seen as a 'professional career' vs someone who is in a job that is hourly paid.
I would be very firm with people who are paid for the hours they work, but there are a lot of professions where there is an expectation that you are 'paid to complete the project' and that sometimes involves some unpaid overtime.

dont, im guilty of this on holiday but still email, keep upto date with base and progress on duties, employees like this are gold and should be treasured

besides in certain industries ect its expected to be available as and when needed 24/7 ive taken calls at 7/8 at night when its after hours etc because i appricated my role and the cause it was for.

I think there's a difference between cracking through your emails on a Sunday night to get ahead and taking an external meeting during your holidays. I really wouldn't want to set an expectation with clients that I expect my team to do that, it affects boundaries, deadlines and all sorts - what if the next person they work from takes their holidays like a normal person and that's seen as a negative?

I'd address that specific issue. But on the rest I generally agree with pps.

This is what I’m trying to get at thank you, I just couldn’t figure out how to explain.

Just because someone emails doesn't mean anyone has to action them

I'm glad you're thinking about the effect on others ie that it can stretch expectations; i hate working with people always available or who don't mind coming in on annual leave because then people see it as bad when you don't; some of us have a life outside of work! It's a tricky one to navigate though.

Yes but it starts to feed into the culture of the workplace if emailing outside of yours hours becomes normal.

It only has to if people let it

What cover do you arrange while she is off, and do you have a handover?

I work in a team of 14 but none of our work is shared, and the worst thing about taking holiday is coming back to the backlog. However, we set an out of office message saying if something is urgent, to contact our manager, so at least we shouldn't come back to any disasters. Our manager also checks our individual inboxes if we are off for more than a couple of days, just colour flagging emails as either 'action needed' or 'info only' and that is massively helpful on our first day back. We also do a handover the day before our leave and she arranges for anything urgent to be covered.

It really helps us switch off while we are away from work

And people do let it which is OP's point. It's an issue and can leaks into the whole team causing unnecessary stress for others. Be great if it didn't, but it does.

I had a manager once who would email the team at 10,11,12 at night. Sure we didn't see it right then, but when we did, it would add a sense of urgency to whatever the email was about and you start the day feeling like you're trying to keep up.

It's part & parcel of some professions as others have said but I'm guessing that OP wouldn't be posting if this was the case.

One thing I've found now as a manager myself is that overworking can be a distraction from problems in home life, (which in my experience has been the main reason and was the reason with ex-boss) or by someone who works with another 'enthusiastic' employee as they feel the need to keep up. Could also simply be poor time management, but I'd gently reassure them of expectations and see what comes up.

Covid was really good for a multitude of articles on how to set and maintain work / life balance. Google a bit a read up on the benefits and how to set that culture in your team.

With my teams I stress that I think balance is extremely important. I do not expect people to log in on days off or even be available for calls. If I cannot manage without them for a day, there is something fundamentally wrong with the team. It would take an extreme emergency for me to contact them out of hours.

I encourage and fully support leave breaks. Again, I stress that breaks are essential for mental wellbeing. Disconnecting from work keeps people healthy and lets them recharge. After busy times, where people have worked additional hours, I make it a point to tell them to take some days / have long weekends over the next couple of weeks to recharge and recover.

Saying the words is all well and good, but you need to model the behaviour yourself. If I am working outside of hours, I schedule emails to send in work hours (easily done in outlook) that helps set the culture of limiting work outside of hours. When I'm on leave I don't look at emails or have the work phone on me. I literally don't think about work at all and that's what I expect my team to do as well.

ETA I would also stress I value her well being. Disconnecting is the best way to ensure she doesn't burnout and stays mentally well and able to handle the pressure of the role.

The meeting this girl has agreed to attend to is useful but not urgent and could have been rescheduled to her working day.

Yes I am guilty of reading and responding to emails which I am trying to change as I realise now modelling this behaviour is important to set an example.

I will have a chat with this person one on one and then bring it up with my team at our next meeting aswell. We also have a WhatsApp group and I’m conscious that this is leaking into peoples lives at home. A lot of the team are part time and I worry that people feel they have to respond when they’re off etc.

Thanks for your advice folks