Emailing at odd hours

[Ceallach]

I find it hard to believe that they don't normally get emails at night, though, and that your email is a specific problem.   I don't get huge amounts of email in general, but I always wake up to a list of them in both my personal and work emails. When I'm corresponding with people or businesses in different time zones, we almost always send asynchronously.

I would agree at any other organisation I've worked at (all my other organisations have been global or interacted globally), however the nature of the business we are in means everything is local - we don't have any international correspondence whatsoever.      Although I receive personal emails overnight, I have never once received a single work email overnight at this job, except for those from the same managers, often in response to my own etc.    So during waking hours.    

We don't deal with anybody in any other timezones.  Suppliers, clients etc are all local.   (It's a service based industry). 

[Virg]

Ceallach wrote:

"I would agree at any other organisation I've worked at (all my other organisations have been global or interacted globally), however the nature of the business we are in means everything is local - we don't have any international correspondence whatsoever."

I presume that blarg314 meant that even a business address might get non-business emails or spam coming in at night, as proven by the fact that you get personal emails at night.  Therefore, if he doesn't want email waking him up then it's on him to alter his phone settings, and if he does want email waking him up then it's not your problem to try to guess whether any given email will do that.  In the absence of a specific request from him not to send emails during any given time period, there's no rudeness in sending emails at any given time.

Virg

[TootsNYC]

One thing you can do, to make up for the lack of a "time delay" on the "send" function, is to email it to yourself with a subject line: "FORWARD TO CHRISTINE."

Then you will be less likely to forget, but you can send it the next time you're on.

[Outdoor Girl]

I don't think it is rude to send the e-mail when you are thinking about it.  I'm terrible at remembering things like this and I'd probably even forget to check the drafts folder to see if I have anything to send.

Could you use the subject line to let them know they don't have to read it right away?  Like 'To be dealt with first thing Monday - XYZ issue'.

Then, if they choose to read it and respond right away, that's entirely on them.

[The TARDIS]

Don't worry yourself about it. Email will sit until it is read, regardless of when it was sent.

Now, if it was showing up at their house as floating white boxes, THAT would be annoying.

[AngelicGamer]

Don't worry yourself about it. Email will sit until it is read, regardless of when it was sent.

Now, if it was showing up at their house as floating white boxes, THAT would be annoying.

I say give that idea 10 years and it'll start happening.  Someone would want email right now and be inspired by the owls of Harry Potter and the idea will be born.

[Ceallach]

Ceallach wrote:

"I would agree at any other organisation I've worked at (all my other organisations have been global or interacted globally), however the nature of the business we are in means everything is local - we don't have any international correspondence whatsoever."

I presume that blarg314 meant that even a business address might get non-business emails or spam coming in at night, as proven by the fact that you get personal emails at night.  Therefore, if he doesn't want email waking him up then it's on him to alter his phone settings, and if he does want email waking him up then it's not your problem to try to guess whether any given email will do that.  In the absence of a specific request from him not to send emails during any given time period, there's no rudeness in sending emails at any given time.

Virg

Ah fair point! I guess they get routed direct to the junk folder for I have not had a single junk email. (is that very unusual? Most companies these days have good spam filters so I take it for granted).

[blarg314]

I still get some junk mail on my work account - they're moving to a new system which will hopefully help, but unfortunately, my ability to set spam filters in Chinese is limited, and almost all of the spam I get is non-English.

Sometimes I do get work related emails from people in the same time zone at weird hours, but I don't check them until the morning. And rarely but occasionally  there's a hang-up on the server that delays the sending of emails.

On my home email, I get various routine emails, from mailing lists, or group emails for organizations, or consumer notices I've signed up for.  These show up at various times of day, including the middle of the night.

But I do keep my work and home emails separate. So if I don't want to be disturbed by work related stuff on the weekend, I can not check my work account.

It sound like that for the OP, after hours emails are not common, and there is no reason why someone would need to read work emails at 3 in the morning. So if someone is setting their work email account to automatic alert and leaving it on their bedside, it's totally optional to do that. In that case, if the actually get email alerts, it's their problem. They can separate their work and personal emails, or set up filters to only alert them for certain emails, or turn off the alerts, or whatever they want to do to change things if it's a problem.

[Lynn2000]

My feeling is, if you know for certain, through comments these specific people have made, that they are disturbed by emails at night and don't appreciate them, it's just better from a professional standpoint to not send them emails at night. Why do something that you know will irritate a colleague, when it doesn't really need to be done?

You can try the time delay, saving a draft, emailing it to yourself first, whatever. I don't know what your job is so I don't want to diminish it, but I'm just wondering, if an email doesn't get sent because you went into labor, is it really going to mess everything up? If it really is, perhaps you could make a temporary deal with another co-worker that you will send her the emails as you write them, and then if for some reason you aren't able to send them to the real recipient yourself, she can do it for you.

A friend of mine has chosen to get rid of her landline and uses her cell phone solely. She keeps it on 24/7, by the bed, in case of emergencies. It rings for text messages the same as it does for a phone call. I didn't realize this, but after one too many early morning texts which I thought she could read later at her leisure, she told me about her setup. I didn't know before, so I wasn't rude then; but now that I know, I think I would be rude to text her at a time it's likely to wake her up (for a non-emergency).

[nrb80]

One thing to consider - is there a bias about when emails are sent/work is done?  I personally believe people work productively at all hours, but not everyone does, and often people do not want late night work.  Internally is one thing, but I have a rule of not sending clients emails far outside business hours unless it's urgent - i.e. I need something from them at 10 pm for a hearing the next morning, but even if I was up all night drafting a pleading, I time delay that to 7:30 am so the client doesn't know I finished at 3 am.  I don't think my work product is any worse, but no client wants to feel like the last thing tacked into the day, and when we charge by the hour they want the most productive hours (regardless of whether one is most productive at 3 am) and sometimes late nights seem not so productive.

[Margo]

I don't think it is rude. As PPs have said, it's possible to set notifications for incoming mail the way *you* want them, which includes turning them off when you go to bed, if you wish.

I have to admit, that I would see Lynee2000's friend's set up in a similar way - she has chosen to have a loud alert which disturbs her, when she gets a text message. Of course I would not text her if I remembered that it might disturb her, because it would be rude to deliberately do something which you know the other person doesn't want you to, but unless she is a very close friend or family member, I don't think it would be reasonable of her to expect that everyone remembers her personal set up. Ultimately the reason she's disturbed is because of the way she has chosen to set up her phone. And the same is true of people who have their e-mail alerts on all the time.
It is also possible that those people you work with who have their notifications on at all times are not disturbed by the alert, if they are actually sleeping. I once apologised to a friend of mine after I texted her very late at night (I have not realized how late it was) as I was worried I'd woken her. She told me that the reason she doesn't turn off the phone or alerts at night is that the alerts don't disturb her, and the phone has to be ringing for quite a while to wake her, so if she happens to be awake she will respond immediately, if she isn't, it won't disturb her at all.

(And I know it wasn't just a polite response to my apology, as when we later shared a room, her text alert work me up the first night, she slept through it. The second night she turned her phone to silent, because she is a nice person and a good friend :-) )

[Lynn2000]

I have to admit, that I would see Lynee2000's friend's set up in a similar way - she has chosen to have a loud alert which disturbs her, when she gets a text message. Of course I would not text her if I remembered that it might disturb her, because it would be rude to deliberately do something which you know the other person doesn't want you to, but unless she is a very close friend or family member, I don't think it would be reasonable of her to expect that everyone remembers her personal set up. Ultimately the reason she's disturbed is because of the way she has chosen to set up her phone. And the same is true of people who have their e-mail alerts on all the time.

I do think there's some give and take to it. For example, once my friend complained that her FIL had texted her late at night and woken them up, for something that wasn't urgent at all. She was quite huffy about it and I said, "He knows texts wake you up just like phone calls, right? Because I didn't realize that at first." And she was like, still huffy, "Well, DH was supposed to tell him!"  I think FIL is not the problem here, then... But since she and I have discussed this specific issue, yes, I think it would be rude of me to text her when she's likely to be asleep.

I read the OP as these specific work colleagues had discussed the issue with her and were disturbed by late night emails. It might not be rude, objectively, to send the emails whenever, but it just doesn't seem wise to me to do something you know irritates your colleague, when it's not something you have to do. Of course there is a fine line there, which we discuss here all the time--is it rude to play soft music/eat fragrant food/make work-related phone calls at your desk/be more successful than your colleague, if it bothers your colleague? To me, since there are so many other options besides sending an email right then in the middle of the night, I think it's worth waiting, and not irritating the colleague.

[The TARDIS]

Don't worry yourself about it. Email will sit until it is read, regardless of when it was sent.

Now, if it was showing up at their house as floating white boxes, THAT would be annoying.

I say give that idea 10 years and it'll start happening.  Someone would want email right now and be inspired by the owls of Harry Potter and the idea will be born.

Haha! I was referencing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ5Ogi56Gv8

[AngelicGamer]

Don't worry yourself about it. Email will sit until it is read, regardless of when it was sent.

Now, if it was showing up at their house as floating white boxes, THAT would be annoying.

I say give that idea 10 years and it'll start happening.  Someone would want email right now and be inspired by the owls of Harry Potter and the idea will be born.

Haha! I was referencing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ5Ogi56Gv8

LOL!  Note to self: Sometimes the TARDIS goes meta. 

Although, it would be cool if the little white boxes existed and email became like getting owls, but I'm a strange duck.

[Ceallach]

I read the OP as these specific work colleagues had discussed the issue with her and were disturbed by late night emails. It might not be rude, objectively, to send the emails whenever, but it just doesn't seem wise to me to do something you know irritates your colleague, when it's not something you have to do. Of course there is a fine line there, which we discuss here all the time--is it rude to play soft music/eat fragrant food/make work-related phone calls at your desk/be more successful than your colleague, if it bothers your colleague? To me, since there are so many other options besides sending an email right then in the middle of the night, I think it's worth waiting, and not irritating the colleague.

This is kind of the situation.  It's more that I know that they read them because they respond straight away.

There were a few weekends recently where myself and another manager agreed between us not to send any emails to our (mutual) boss over the weekend because we were worried about her and didn't want to give her more work!   (That might sound patronising to some, but the type of things we would send were things that really *could* wait, and we knew she'd been burning the candle at both ends and desperately needed some family time).   We both did the work we planned on doing but just saved our emails up to send on Monday.  So there's been no complaints but both her and the other manager have young children and both tend to work long hours from home (as do I), so that switching off time is important.  Of course they are adults and will make their own choices and switch off their phones as needed, but at the same time I don't want to add to the problem.   Like I said, I'm exactly the same in that I too will reply when I get the emails!  Which is why I have alerts switched off so although I check them constantly, I don't get actually interrupted by them. I only see them when I'm actually sitting around playing with my phone or sending emails etc. 

Anyway thank you all for your comments it's an interesting topic.     I've been booked for induction early this coming week, so we decided it made sense for me to actually stop working as of Friday - which included completely disconnecting my iphone from my work email because we all know I'll keep checking them otherwise!       So it's a moot point now as there's a gap between work and having bubs after all.   But of course the topic is still relevant in general.   I guess every situation is different so I'll keep it case by case.