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Daria

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13 comments on Email boundaries: an update

Email boundaries: an update

Back in September I set an intention to keep my work email off my phone and to not check it after work hours (my work hours are 7:30AM to 2:45PM).

I am happy to report that I have not opened my work email once since the school year started! There were days when I felt a tremendous itch to reinstall the email, open it, and see if there are any messages but I fought against that. I think I distracted myself with something else, and reminded myself that in my teaching position there is absolutely nothing that cannot wait until the next business day. Had I been a school admin, for example, then maybe there could have been more pressing issues, i.e. HIB, building on fire, personnel issues?…

Most of the emails I get are from students (rarely, from parents) and those can wait till the next business day. Usually, there are questions about grades, improvement, extra help requests, absences, material, etc.

I am not sure why I was putting so much pressure on myself to check the email after hours. There is literally nothing there that cannot wait. I do not have to see the mailbox. I do not have to address the email during dinner/bath time/exercise/yoga. What was my “why”? Probably to give myself a sense of control that “all is well at work”? Or, to knowingly distract myself from something else?… Or, to make myself feel important?.. Or, to be a people pleaser?…

This definitely ties into my people pleasing tendencies that I have been struggling for what feels like years. I have gotten better, much better, but there is still room to grow. But, at least, my work email is remaining closed after I leave the building.

What’s your relationship with work email? Or, email in general?

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Daria

Mother, teacher, partner, friend. I love coffee, books, and travel with and without kids. I dislike exercise. Nothing glamorous here but do have moments of insight.

13 responses to “Email boundaries: an update”

  1. Sarah Jedd Avatar
    Sarah Jedd

    I DO check my email all the darn time because my grad students do not keep normal business hours and have all sorts of things happen in their classes that they need feedback on. I have gotten better about reminding people to text me if it is a time-sensitive thing, which alleviates the need to check. I keep an inbox zero policy in place, so I am pretty sure by mid-afternoon that there’s nothing boling over.

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  2. San Avatar
    San

    Good for you, Daria, for setting this boundary. I literally have no option to check my work email from my phone (you need to have a government-issued phone in my job to do that, which I don’t) and I have to say, I am glad it’s not even an option. When I am off, I am off. I like a clean inbox and try to respond to everything as soon as I can, but only DURING my work day… everything else has to wait.

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  3. NGS Avatar
    NGS

    I do not do anything for work if I’m not at work. LOL. I am not paid for that! I don’t even really know how to check my email from my phone. I’m full boundaries girl!

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  4. Coco Avatar
    Coco

    I am good not checking when I’m not expecting urgent matters. lately due to the job situation, I’m checking after my morning routine, 5 or 5:30am. once this is over, I will definitely revert to checking only working hours.

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  5. Diane Avatar
    Diane

    I go back and forth on checking work email on my phone. Because my hours are so varied, I do feel like I need to check email in the morning if I’m not planning on being at the theatre until the afternoon, or if I take off work early, I check to see if something needs to be addressed before the next day. I don’t always respond to the emails, but I do like to check to see what is going on.

    I find it so interesting about communicating with teachers via email – my 12 year old has had a lot of missing assignments and I’ve told her to go talk to her teachers and she says, “I’ll just email them.” Except she has one teacher who has a “I’ll reply within 48 hours” rule, so it would be faster if my daughter just went to talk to the teacher. But she prefers to email. *shrug*

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  6. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    I’ve been awful about that earlier in my career when I seemed to have no work boundaries as a young single person trying to find his place in the professional world. But as I’ve established myself I’ve pushed back on that boundary more and more, but for the 25ish years I worked for a giant electronics corporation which wasn’t the most friendly to allowing work/life balance (whatever lip service they gave to the contrary) I still had work email and pager and texts and instant messaging following me around everywhere I went. For the last four years, though, working at a company with a much friendlier culture, I’ve finally managed to keep a hard line of isolation. No work email on personal devices. No personal data on work laptop. I can close my work system at the end of the day or over the weekend and leave work behind me until I am back at work. It’s amazing.

    My one concession is that I have our company Slack channels on my personal phone and tablet but I’m actually pretty good about not checking it when I’m away, and it’s convenient to keep in touch when I’m mobile running an errand during the workday. And after hours my coworkers are leaving Slack alone as well, so it’s not like I’m ignoring people wondering where I am. Work/life balance is a refreshing thing when you can manage to get it.

    Personal email used to be more of a time sink too but I’ve actually gotten better at using automation to file messages into different folders so I’ll see ones I might need to respond to right away separate from ones i can get around to later.

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  7. Kyria @ Travel Spot Avatar
    Kyria @ Travel Spot

    Good for you for setting some boundries! I am lucky that we did not have work email on our phones until the pandemic, and even then my boss at the time was good about having work hours be work hours. We sometimes worked 10 or 12 hour days, but as soon as we stepped foot out of the office, our time was our own. I can count the times on one hand that he called me after work hours (in 8 years). However, when this boss left and another (younger) one came along, he not only expected you to check constantly, but also check and respond within seconds (he would sometimes call me literally 5 seconds after an email came through to ask me a question about it). I had to definitely manage expectations there, as his knee jerk reaction is so not my style. Ultimately I quit my job partially because of this!

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  8. Lisa’s Yarns Avatar
    Lisa’s Yarns

    I do tend to check emails after work, like around dinner or bedtime, just in case something has come up. But I try not to look at emails in the morning until I log into my laptop. I figure what does it matter to know about spending 30-60 minutes before I am going to be logging into work. There is kind of expectation to be available after hours in my role, though. Even though the markets are closed and no trades can be done, a client might need info about something so they can make a change the following morning or something like that. I have been trying to stay off my email when I am on PTO, though!

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  9. Michelle G. Avatar
    Michelle G.

    Yes to boundaries! Good for you!

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  10. J Avatar
    J

    I think that’s great, congratulations. I check my work email first thing in the morning, it gives me a bit of an idea how my day is going to go. I don’t do anything about it or answer, so I really should wait until the day starts.

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  11. Tobia | craftaliciousme Avatar
    Tobia | craftaliciousme

    Cheers to you for setting boundaries.

    I try not to check mail on my phone as I will not answer them there. However I have my business accounts available but not all. Office stuff is irrelevant. And the clients mails are also not on the phone.

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  12. Stephany Avatar
    Stephany

    Kudos for email boundaries! I imagine it can be so hard not to constantly check email for certain jobs. I have email/Slack on my phone but I don’t have push notifications for email and I don’t have the app on my screen to check, which helps. I always silence notifications for Slack when I’m not working, too. There’s nothing that I do that requires immediate attention so it’s an easy boundary for me to follow!

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  13. Reflecting back on 2024 goals – Mom of Children Avatar
    Reflecting back on 2024 goals – Mom of Children

    […] Email boundaries! This goal was not on the list (should have been) but I have held my email boundaries firmly from September (school year beginning) till present day. I plan on NOT checking email after contractual time (3PM) ever again. […]

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