When you’re off, you’re off
I got a kick out of this article Steven sent me about Daimler’s (the German Automaker) solution for emails you receive when you have your “out-of-office” auto reply on – they delete them. Ha! How awesome is that?! Is someone continually emailing you even though you are off? You’ll NEVER see the emails. Ha. Ha ha.
And I found this tidbit mentioned in the article to be interesting – that the tech industry and several unions in France have signed a deal that makes it so that companies can no longer contact their employees electronically after the working hours of the day are over!
So… Europe is either really progressive, or people are going to be picking up the phone more to communicate with each other. Maybe a bit of both?
Now, compare that to what we have going on in the US – people who are too afraid to go on vacation, because of the amount of work they will have when they get back, the fear that no one can do what they do while they are gone, and that they don’t want to appear replaceable. Sigh.
I actually read that first article this weekend, and right away, thought about how grateful I am that my company has such a great work/life balance. I feel free to take leave when I want, and rarely look at my phone when I am off, unless I am expecting something “urgent.” We work our set hours each day, rarely more. Our leaders respect our family time. I knew my company was like this as I was interviewing, and it’s a huge part of why I took the job.
So to read that article yesterday, about people fearing taking a vacation… ugh, it just made me feel sad. Sad that people feel so trapped like that! Okay, and it made me interested in what the article called the “martyr” complex – that you are the ONLY one who can do your job. I wonder how many jobs are really that way.
I like the Daimler attitude better (about why they are deleted the emails people get when they have their out-of-office on):
Daimler believes that people on break actually deserve a break, and that managers shouldn’t try to wring out a few extra hours of work that likely aren’t necessary. It might have a point: studies even suggest that Germany, France and other countries that discourage overtime are very productive.
How about you? When you’re off work, are you truly “off”? Do you have a hard time taking vacation?
I wonder how generational this is. There is definitely more of a devotion/loyalty to work in older generations, and a tendency to see it as a means to an end, in younger ones.
Themocracy
This actually made me start to tear up. 🙁 This is such a problem at my company–my employee who is going on maternity leave just asked me yesterday what she is supposed to do with all the emails she gets while she is out. I told her it is illegal for her to check them, but now she is afraid she is going to spend her entire first month back responding to emails!
Yes, we are expected to be available at all hours, although THANK GOD my boss has established that work/life balance is important to her and she expects the same for her people. Part of it is, I think, abuse of technology (if you have your phone with you all the time, why CAN’T you check in?), part of it is just ingrained in the culture (no one wants to step up and be the first person to say “no, I won’t be checking messages!”) and part of it is unfortunately that companies don’t have the extra capacity they once had. We’re squeezing as much as possible out of every single employee, so there’s just not capacity for someone to take on another person’s work for an entire week! (in my field specifically, things like offers and interviews really can’t be put off another 7 days or we risk losing the candidate)
I hope something shifts in this country some day, because I think it is very bad for our health and wellness. Maybe P and I should consider moving to Europe, too…
Gah, that just sucks that your coworker was so stressed about that… going on maternity leave! I mean, seriously, there is no one who can help out while she is gone?! This seems so foreign to me – in my office, we pick up each other’s projects when someone is gone, or they get reassigned, if need be, long term. And we have all the technology – laptops, phones, tablets, but aren’t expected to use them unless we are working. Gosh. I didn’t realize how lucky I am.
Well, we’re redistributing all of her work across the team, including myself. (that was a fun project–my first task as a new manager was to map out the entire 3 month coverage plan!) It’s entirely too much for just one person. And she will have me listed on her out of office–but she could really use that delete function, because her fear is that she’s still going to have a million emails when she gets back!
Sounds like you work for a great company. Luckily my job isn’t hardcore, so I don’t have to check emails at all hours, but I’m still technically part time, so I don’t get paid vacation, which makes taking vacation hard. It’s too bad it’s hard to find a job that’s somewhere in the middle.
Unfortunately my job has insane hours and tries to chain me to my phone. It’s the biggest thing about my position that I dislike. Definitely one of the worst aspects of American culture.
I suppose that working for the government in a hourly, union position as my first job spoiled me! We didn’t even have access to email outside of the office (and I didn’t even have email at all for the first 4 years I worked there!) Now I truly believe that when my work day is done it is DONE. I refuse to let it take over my life and refuse to expect anyone else to do things after hours, either.
Also, at my previous job, I would set up out of office email and in them I would say who they needed to contact if they needed something done right away. Of course, I’ve also never worked a job where what I did was VITAL to the organization so I’ve never felt bad taking time off 🙂
We have access to email, but only on our phones (which the company pays for for all but the first level of staff). So, to some degree you are expected to check email on vacation, but because it’s on your phone you aren’t expected to take action beyond quick replies, like assuring a client you’ll do something when you’re back in the office, or forwarding it to a coworker who can take care of something for you. Due to privacy of client information, we can’t access email on other devices, so you can’t be expected to do more work than that!
Although I do see the upside to not having email access, and why some companies are discouraging it, in my industry (public accounting), though there aren’t any true emergencies, there are times where it’s important for action to be taken quickly to minimize the cost of something (like replying to IRS notice before penalties are added on). And although clients are the firm’s clients, not a particular employee’s clients, they do tend to be in touch with just one person, so it is important for the client to feel we haven’t dropped off the face of the earth for a few weeks! So the phone access, but not computer access, to email seems like a good compromise to be in touch, but without overly burdensome expectations.
The article about the tech industry in France mentioned that some things need to be discussed by email “after” hours, kind of how you have mentioned, and I definitely see there being industries and cases like that!
But when you go on vacation, do you not tell your clients that you are and they can contact someone else? Or is that kind of taboo?
Yes, we set up auto reply saying we’re out of the office. But a lot of times taking one minute to shoot off a quick reply to the client actually generates a lot of goodwill, so it feels worth it. Or, actually assigning someone to work on it in your absence, rather than letting the client know just that you’re not in the office to help them is helpful.
My job is exactly like that. When I come back from being gone for a day, or a week, there is a pile of things I have to catch up on, and I am expected to work after 5 to get it done if needed, without being compensated. I’m also expected to check my emails, and respond to emails while I’m away. Will’s job is the same. There are technically people that can “do” our jobs while we are gone, but they have their job to do, and it’s typically easier for them to just let it pile up for you while you’re gone. There’s also a risk that they will totally f*ck it all up, and you’ll be left with even more work. There is no true “vacation”.
That’s why I left my first design job outside of college – I was working like that and sick of it. Especially because there was hardly any gratitude.
I work while I am at work and leave all there when I go home. I used to take work home, work extra hours and weekends whenever needed but it became clear when our company had round after round of lay-offs that the extra effort and extreme loyalty was not reciprocated. Do I have a career here instead of just a job, yes, I hope so, but I’m not willing to sacrifice time with my family and friends to please a company that treats me like a skill set and a number.
I take EVERY single vacation day that I am given and never check email while I am gone. If I have a lot of work piled up when I get back, I’ll get through it, eventually 🙂
We are the most stressed-out nation in the world, and for all our extra hours of work and checking working emails and voicemails from home during vacation, we are no more productive than some of the countries (like Germany) who give workers twice as much vacation and downtime as we do.
I hope someday Corporate America realizes working us the way they do only promote burn-out. It’s good to read that so many workplaces are starting to see the value of “life balance”. Unfortunately, too many businesses pay lip-service to it without truly understanding (or caring) what it means.
For me, I’ll check work email VERY rarely when I’m on vacation or sick leave. When I’m off, I’m off… 😉
Hmm, I’m on both sides of this one. I’m writing this at 7:30pm, from work… but it’s because we have a lot of stuff launching this week and I chose to put in some extra time today to get on top of it. However, as I get older & farther along in my career, I find that it’s up to me as an individual to set the limits in some ways. If you have an insane boss, that will never work, but in the jobs where I’ve worked for mostly-sane people I set expectations about my own availability up front. I’ll put in the time when needed (see: at the office at 7:30 right now) but I also make it clear that I’m not going to be tethered to my phone as a general rule. Companies are under a lot of pressure to perform, so if you give them the chance to take advantage of you they absolutely will. But we should push back on that when we can for our own health & sanity.
I definitely agree that you should try to set the boundaries if you can. And not be walked all over. There will definitely be times you work a bit more to get something done (and maybe days you work a bit less!). I think it’s really bad to go along with always being available and working all the time if you don’t want to. I spoke out against that at my last job, and do at my current job when it comes up. Work’s just not my life!
Well, I’m a teacher, so clearly I am not really ever “off”. There are always papers to grade, lessons to plan, etc. etc. etc. And now with email it’s pretty common for parents and students to contact me after hours and expect a response quickly.
I was talking to a friend who is a teacher and she was telling me how much time grading stuff takes… ugh. Do you have to do a lot during the summer, too?
I’m hourly, so when I’m off, I’m off. If you want me to be on, then you have to pay me.
When we went to Punta Cana, Jakre’s boss asked him to keep his phone on, but since they wouldn’t pay for it, he said no. And I said no, because that is so ridiculous, IMO.
Keep my work phone on but don’t pay me? GFY.
I used to feel guilty about taking time off because heck it is never a good time to take off right? Well, things are so different now that I am a teacher. But sometimes it is MORE work to work on sub plans (because I am very detailed and want to make sure my kids are learning that day) that sometimes I have to think twice about taking a day off. I am getting better at it though. No complaints during the summer. I did put my out of office reply with my personal email and only one teacher reached me that day.
Pretty much everyone at my company falls into the “martyr” thing – it’s seriously impossible to take any time off without a bunch of stuff blowing off right before you go out, or feeling like you have to rush to get things done before you leave. This happens to me even if I take a one-off day here and there, it’s really annoying. But that said, I don’t have my company email on my phone, and not many people that I work with actually have my phone number, so once I’m logged off, that’s it.
I’m lucky to have a great work/life balance and a boss who does not expect me to work when I’m not at work, and who takes vacations herself and has small kids so sometimes has to come in late or leave early so it’s never an issue if I have to as well. Also my co-workers on my immediate team and I can all cover for each other since we basically use the same software to do our jobs (which is great because one co-worker is about to go on maternity leave and another just announced she’s expecting).
I am happy to hear I am not the only one who has a good work/life balance! 🙂 I was getting scared with the other responses!
I’ve luckily never had an issue with work/life balance. I think some people (SOME, not everyone) bring it upon themselves. At my last job, I had virtually the same position as my colleague. But she was constantly taking work home on the weekends, staying at the office until 7 or 8pm. Meanwhile, I was usually out of there by 5pm (our quitting time was 4:30pm), don’t recall ever taking work home, and my boss never complained that I didn’t work as hard or do as much as her. So I’m not sure why she felt obligated to work so many more hours. (We were salaried so it’s not like she paid for overtime. That I’m aware of.)
Seeing a friend do that is what partially inspired me to write this. I said to them “don’t let them get used to you doing all that extra work!”
I work on a deadline schedule – so, basically, all of our work has to be done by the last day of the month. If we finish early, fantastic! If we’re behind, it’s up to us to work late/weekends to catch up. (In my 1 year of being here, I’ve only had to put in overtime once, and it was maybe 4-5 hours total?) It does affect taking vacation because you either have to work ahead to keep yourself on pace, or you’ll get behind and wind up working late or on the weekends to catch up. But I still take my vacations and enjoy them (I don’t worry about work AT ALL!) and my company definitely allows us a good work/life balance (plus, we only have to work half-days on Fridays! SO nice!). I leave my work at home, don’t even have my work email on my phone, and don’t worry about work at nights or on the weekends. It’s a good balance! I don’t think I could work a job where I had to be answering emails all the time and felt bad taking a vacation. Life’s too short for a job like that!
Sometimes, I feel like wanting a job where I work normal hours, don’t answer emails when I’m off, take vacations completely disconnected makes me less of a “go-getter,” which I think is due to this American need to constantly be busy and appear important. It’s not a bad thing to want to leave work at work!
It sounds like you have a great set-up that you have totally figured out how to make work for you! That is fantastic! Do the other people in your office handle the end of month deadlines as well? I like having deadlines – I am typically the type to have it done in advance.
I get why you would feel that way! People act like if you don’t, you are not a good worker! Or invested in your work! But we are 🙂
I think about this often and go back and forth on it. I’ve always had my work email sync up on my iPhone but a few days ago our company switched software and it stopped syncing without the necessary update. It was so nice to not have that urge to check work emails! I’ve since updated the software and it’s back to syncing up 🙁 Regardless though, my work is really good about not asking us to work after-hours so I’ve never felt stressed about answering an email immediately. I can see how others would be negatively affected though.
I’ve made a point not to have my work email on my phone, and I maybe check it on my computer once during the weekend, but usually not. I agree that it’s really sad that people feel like they can’t take their (hard-earned!!!) vacation for fear of missing things. That just is the sucks.
That being said, I’m not sure how I feel about France’s new email policy. I mean, it’s super-great that they want to promote work-life balance for citizens, but on the other hand, it kind of doesn’t work if you have remote employees or need to deal with people in other timezones. When I read that, I was just like, ‘LOL. France.’
Yeah, the article about what is going on in France kind of hinted at how that doesn’t quite work for social media companies… or anyone who needs to have a presence around the clock! Nice gesture though 🙂