Work E-mail Use Creeps Into Off Hours

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So a new study says that work e-mail is now creeping over into our off time. There are lots of people that have to keep tabs on work 24/7 and then there are people that don’t use e-mail at work at all. Which category are you in? Is work e-mail encroaching on your free time?

In a survey of 2,134 adults in March and April, 96 percent used e-mail, the Internet or cell phones. Of them, 80 percent said these technologies have improved their ability to do their jobs, and 58 percent said these tools have given them more control over when to work. But 46 percent also said these devices increase the demands that they work more hours, and 49 percent said that the technologies make it harder to disconnect from work when they should be off.
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I work at a school and my work email is unaccessible from outside of the school's network. I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
I have work email redirected to my Blackberry. I can decide whether to answer it or wait until morning depending on the case. For instance if I see "Travis, get over here! There server's on fire!" you can bet your ass I'm going into work. But if I get something like "Travis, I'm trying to browse this website and it's asking me to install Java, please advise", it can wait til morning.
 
I keep tabs on work emails 24/7, and am generally making and getting calls into the wee hours of the morning -- depends on what's going on. Some jobs require constant attention, "off time" or not. Some jobs just require less effort.
 
I keep tabs on work e-mail from home. All the projects currently in production need constant attention in the event any issues arise.
 
i'm in a position where I am oncall 24/7. Any alarm emails go to my phone in the form of a text message and to my email inbox. The phone ones I "watch" all the time as I keep the phone with me at all times. As for a normal email to my inbox. When I leave the office I stop watching the inbox. If somebody needs me for anything they have my house number and my cell number. They can get ahold of me that way. Unless I am expecting to hear from somebody about something important I'm not going to check my work email at home.
 
I work from home and I get the occasional email in off hours, nothing distracting though.
 
I have Outlook open 24/7 on my work PC, my Smartphone, and my Home PC, and rarely go more than a couple hours without checking it, even on weekends and vacation. Checking email is one of the last things I do each night before going to bed, and one of the first things I do in the morning after waking up. Sounds bad, but it helps my day go smoother.
 
I agree with the day going smoother. I want all the information I can as it comes in before I have to wake up and play catch up trying to make a decision about things I hadn't even heard that happened yet.

I get phonecall at 3am "This just happened at this depth" -- Quickly glance at my logs, make some notes, and in 10 minutes I'm fast asleep. But as I get into work, I can immediately get to work on what happened over night, instead of playing catch-up that morning.
 
JethroXP said:
I have Outlook open 24/7 on my work PC, my Smartphone, and my Home PC, and rarely go more than a couple hours without checking it, even on weekends and vacation. Checking email is one of the last things I do each night before going to bed, and one of the first things I do in the morning after waking up. Sounds bad, but it helps my day go smoother.
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This would be me. I don't think from any job after I was given my first handheld device to get emails on, did I ever go more than a few hours without checking in. Pathetic really but like others have said, sometimes you just have to do it to stay on pace with what's going on. I know my wife would like to throw it out to window.
 
There are a very scant few instances where I need to be available "all" of the time. Otherwise, I don't check e-mail. I have no cell either so it's just the home phone with machine. In high availability instances, I borrow a work cell phone then return when it's done.

I much perfer getting hit in the morning with my coffee.
 
if an employer wanted me to be reading about or even thinking about work during my time off, he would have to pay for the privilege.
 
Martyr said:
if an employer wanted me to be reading about or even thinking about work during my time off, he would have to pay for the privilege.
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This is my opinion as well. I send and receive ridiculous amounts of e-mails at work each day. I do not have or want access to my e-mail when I step foot out of the door. I do not want e-mail coming to my cell phone either. I'll deal with it when I am in the office.
 
I used to be "on call" 24/7 because I was a salesman. However, unless I get into a high position at any company I refuse to do anything related to the company during off-time.
 
I'm a technician who works 5 days a week and gets 2 days off.

With my job I have been given a blackberry to monitor emails during my on shift times. The problem is that my days off are Tuesday and Wednesday and unless I watch my emails I will almost never have ANY idea whats going on due to poor communication.

So yes I'm one of those ones who watches and takes this stuff home.
 
I might be upset that I have to check my work email at home on my blackberry all the time if it weren't for the fact that I can keep tabs on my personal life and the everything that interests me on the internet while at work...
 
I'm on call 24/7 so my blackberry is something that I always have on me. Right now I carry 2 phones, both are blackberries.......

I don't mind checking email from time to time at home but if anything comes up that demands more then a few seconds work it is getting billed out.
 
swatbat said:
I'm on call 24/7 so my blackberry is something that I always have on me. Right now I carry 2 phones, both are blackberries.......

I don't mind checking email from time to time at home but if anything comes up that demands more then a few seconds work it is getting billed out.
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Same here, the wife calls my blackberry my leash. Everywhere we go, I have it on me just in case. However, I get paid six figures to work from home as a software engineer, so I can't bitch too much.
 
firebane said:
I'm a technician who works 5 days a week and gets 2 days off.

With my job I have been given a blackberry to monitor emails during my on shift times. The problem is that my days off are Tuesday and Wednesday and unless I watch my emails I will almost never have ANY idea whats going on due to poor communication.

So yes I'm one of those ones who watches and takes this stuff home.
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+1 - I am in the EXACT situation. Poor communication and all...
 
If college email counts, then yes it bleeds over and in a word (or two) It sucks sometimes.
 
if free time creeps into work hours (ie hardforum), then I don't see why work can't creep into free hours
 
so... 46% of people are morons... i thought that figure was much higher... or is that 46% of people are morons and use a cellphone at work??? any emails/phonecalls etc that i have made outside of regular working hours is added to their next invoice discretely at a premium rate (for being after hours)
 
I work in the IT department of a large insurance company. I don't personally check anything after I get off, unless there is an issue or a big issuance. I do however get email from all the upper level management at crazy hours, one dude even at 1 or 2am. There def seems to be a correlation between seniority and emailing at horrible hours.

People even take their laptops with them on vacation, screw that. I'll spend a day or two digging through old email before I bring work on vacation.
 
I think I'm among the rarity of geeks in that I rarely, if ever, do any work outside of work. I will do the odd thing off-hours about once every three months, but for me, time away from work is my time to be with my family. So I rarely, if ever, read work email when I'm away from work. I plan to keep it that way as much as possible.
 
Buckus said:
I think I'm among the rarity of geeks in that I rarely, if ever, do any work outside of work. I will do the odd thing off-hours about once every three months, but for me, time away from work is my time to be with my family. So I rarely, if ever, read work email when I'm away from work. I plan to keep it that way as much as possible.
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but my time away from work IS working for family and friends!!! LOL.. and those 'love-jobs' don't pay too well either.. but the only stuff actually related to my workplace is on weekend using the business wholesale supplier accounts to search for my new toys
 
arentol said:
I might be upset that I have to check my work email at home on my blackberry all the time if it weren't for the fact that I can keep tabs on my personal life and the everything that interests me on the internet while at work...
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I think many overlook this.
 
bubbakja said:
I work in the IT department of a large insurance company. I don't personally check anything after I get off, unless there is an issue or a big issuance. I do however get email from all the upper level management at crazy hours, one dude even at 1 or 2am. There def seems to be a correlation between seniority and emailing at horrible hours.

People even take their laptops with them on vacation, screw that. I'll spend a day or two digging through old email before I bring work on vacation.
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Buckus said:
I think I'm among the rarity of geeks in that I rarely, if ever, do any work outside of work. I will do the odd thing off-hours about once every three months, but for me, time away from work is my time to be with my family. So I rarely, if ever, read work email when I'm away from work. I plan to keep it that way as much as possible.
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Some people work for smaller companies where they are the only admin, or are part of a small 2 or 3 man team where they are the only one that knows how to do [insert some task here]. I myself work for a small telco with one other admin. However I am the network admin and the one that know how to use linux. So if a router dies, or a linux server has an issue it has to be given to me to have it fixed. It doesn't matter if it is between 8 and 5 monday through friday or if it is 3 am Christmas day. Now, on my vacation I have my phone but not a laptop as normally I am in areas where I won't have internet access. But with my phone I can at least be called and walk somebody through the process or give them some information that they need. I warned people when I was on vacation a few weeks ago, they bother me with a call then I write in 4 hours on my time sheet when I get back. The way that I tell people I am on call all the time with vacation being my on call for major problems. Some people don't have to worry about that either because they work somewhere that they only have to worry about problems 8 - 5 M - F or they have a large enough force working beside them (or behind them) that them being gone isn't that big of a deal. But for people like myself, Ockie, and others, being fully off is never really an option.
 
I don't answer email outside of work. Either a phone call or a pager message is what I answer to.
 
I used to basically allow myself to be available at all hours of day, as I would bring my laptop home with me.

But once they cut out my overtime, I no longer will do that.
 
depends on what ur job is and what u r contracted to work for.

if ur contract says once u clock out, that's it, well screw answering emails.

but if ur contract says u r responsible for that, well then u r, indeed, inscrewed. hey u literally signed up for it =P.

but if ur own business... well u have to, otherwise u dont get any $ =P.
 
2 phones ...personal and work e-mails are with me everywhere ... 24/7 ...

damn.
 
I submit my home internet access and my cell phone charges to my company, so that I can respond to escalations if necessary. Previously the group I ran required me to be accessible 24/7. I am now on a much more relaxed tether, but there are potentially aspects of the network where I could be escalated to at any point. I've had a handful of escalations over the last year and honestly I am glad they contacted me rather then let things get out of hand. I keep an exchange mail client constantly running on my phone with the exception of PTO days, if they need me then they can call me directly. I also keep personal email boxes monitored on my phone during work hours so I don't mind trading time after work for that flexibility.
 
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