Dear HR, I work remotely two days a week, but I’m finding I’m getting ‘urgent’ calls and messages after hours. How do I set boundaries without looking uncommitted?
We’ve all heard of the new plague, the ‘Always on Culture’…
Now I might be a bit of an old bird, but I remember the days where work finished at 5.30pm, you could walk away without the fear of work emails, Teams messages or Slack notifications constantly pinging on your phone – it was total freedom.
But now technology allows us (and our bosses) to have access to everything at our fingertips, no matter where we are, or what time it is.
However, I’m not sure I received the societal memo, where clearly the collective decided that work should invade our personal lives like a nosy neighbour, and we set an expectation that we would be available outside of working hours for free and became volunteers.
My suggestion is to bring it back to basics.
There is a watershed for children whereby when you return from youth club on a Friday night and JAWS is the 9 o’clock film, and that scary music starts to play, and your parents have the lost the will to live with you moaning, “Please can I watch it, I promise I wont be scared!”, they give in for an easy life and let you watch it.
Ah yes, an easy life… just for one night. Of course that then leads to you not going in the water for the next year because you are terrified of the big great white shark that is going to gobble you alive as soon as you dip a toe… well, clearly there is a reason for ‘the watershed’. Maybe you should have listened.
So, as working adults why don’t we set ourselves a ‘work watershed hour’?!
Here are a couple of ways you can put one into practice…
- Use the ‘delay send’ feature: Schedule all emails for 8.30am the next day. That way, you look responsible without encouraging bad habits.
- Set an out-of-office message – even when you’re home: “I will respond during working hours. If this is an emergency, please reassess your definition of ‘emergency. (Unless, of course, there is a great white shark and someone has died, then fair enough!)
- Politely push back: Next time your boss emails late, respond the next morning with, “Just seeing this – happy to discuss during work hours!”
This doesn’t make you less of an employee, or give the perception that you ‘work to rule’, it sets clear boundaries between you and your employer.
Remember, you work to live, not live to work. Now go, turn off those notifications, and reclaim your free time. And, if you’re stuck for something to watch this evening, I could recommend a good film… 😊
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