Eroding expectations of personal time

[Game_Day_Sports]

Access is great to anybody at any time is ultimately convenient, but also its own little prison. While I know not everybody believes in the backing of Easter, nonetheless, we can all agree that in the US it is a standard holiday celebrated by most even if it to celebrate a bunny with eggs that s jelly beans.

That is why I was surprised to see over a dozen emails from various clients from throughout the day yesterday. Only one actually thought I would be working and responding to email, the rest were just putting information out there for me to see when I came in today, but I could see in the email chains that they were communicating with their bosses throughout the day.

None of these were in your 24 x 7 industries like hotel or restaurant, but rather in office environments. And not one of these communications between bosses and subordinates was of an urgent nature.

Have we really progressed to the point that bosses get 100% of our waking moments?

 

[UCFRogerz]

This is one of those things. If you email me over the weekend and I have a few minutes to respond, fine. If I don't get to it until Monday morning, don't bitch about it. I'll be dammed if I'm putting any serious time in while I'm supposed to be off. And if I do, I'm charging it.

 

[USFSucks]

I'd bet that those people were at forced and uncomfortable/awkward family events for the holiday where they were trying to get a moment of sanity from crazy uncle Bob or dumbass cousin Joe and doing some simple work was a huge relief to them.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[CommuterBob]

I've seen my wife get inundated by her superiors over the weekend or after business hours. The expectations can be extremely demanding to the point where she has had to cancel participation in weekend activities to deal with work issues. It's made even worse when she has to deal with those on the west coast or even in Asia, as she has been given expectations that she works during their business hours, too, in addition to EDT. Part of being a global organization, I guess.

As for me, I've been pretty good at limiting contact and expectations outside of regular business hours. I don't have many clients that expect it and do a pretty good job of managing my deliverables to not require much overtime. When I have a client that likes to burn the off-hour oil, it's been hell. Some have the opinion that if they are working, so should you.

 

[Knight_Magic]

I will typically stop taking calls after 6:00 on Friday and not turn my work phone back on until Monday morning. However, when it comes to e-mails, it seems as though I am connected at the hip. I don't mind responding to e-mails after work hours as it has become part of my nightly routine before I go to bed, however, if you expect me to pick up the phone to talk to you after I leave the office it better be for very good reason.

 

[UCFKnight85]

I answered some emails yesterday but it didn't take more than 5 minutes on my phone. I spend mornings, evenings, and parts of weekends responding and keeping up comms. It's really not that hard or a burden to my other plans. I've done a quick email or two at a bar before. Modern technology has made keeping up with comms so easy.

That said, I don't get hit up for large projects or paperwork on weekends.

 

[UCFEE]

It's kind of sad that there's still a worry over personal time being eroded given how much more productive we're able to be with modern technology. I've found that if someone's at a point where they're consistently having to work 55-60 hours a week and losing personal time it's because of a cascade of bad decisions within their org led to having to constantly fight fires (without making any real progress).

In my line of work being able to move my project forward relies on other groups meeting certain milestones, so if another group isn't able to complete their work until late on a Friday I might have to work 6 or 8 hours on a weekend, but it usually means more free time during the week to take an edX class or work a personal project. I might have to spend 10 minutes here and there replying to off hours overseas requests on my phone, but it never adds up to being a burden.

Also think giving people more personal time will help businesses in the long run, because if you hire people that enjoy what they do, their personal projects will likely help them learn new things to help the business' bottom line... spending all your free time fighting fires doesn't do that. Lot of big bulky old organizations are a long way away from being able to get there (so they just spend their money lobbying government to rig things in their favor so they can survive without progressing, but that's an entire other issue)

 

[Bob the Citronaut]

Originally posted by UCFEE:
I've found that if someone's at a point where they're consistently having to work 55-60 hours a week and losing personal time it's because of a cascade of bad decisions within their org led to having to constantly fight fires (without making any real progress).

Lol.

 

[UCFEE]

Fine, caveat that with "unless you're doing shitkicker work".. or making millions.
This post was edited on 4/6 3:22 PM by UCFEE

 

[ProAttitude]

Originally posted by Bob the Knight:

Originally posted by UCFEE:
I've found that if someone's at a point where they're consistently having to work 55-60 hours a week and losing personal time it's because of a cascade of bad decisions within their org led to having to constantly fight fires (without making any real progress).

Lol.

Truth!

And these bad business decisions cost business hundreds of thousands of dollars when the superior is one step below the highest (or lowest) level of the "Peter Principal".

 

[UCFRogerz]

Originally posted by Bob the Knight:

Originally posted by UCFEE:
I've found that if someone's at a point where they're consistently having to work 55-60 hours a week and losing personal time it's because of a cascade of bad decisions within their org led to having to constantly fight fires (without making any real progress).

Lol.

You're just a work-aholic and/or have more skin in the game. If you are consistently pulling 60 hours a week through abundance of work and not all of those things EE listed, hire a 20hr/wk guy. Your 20 hours of OT ~ to 30 hours, assuming time and a half. If you can't hire a 20hr guy part time with 30 hours worth of your salary PLUS the difference between yours and his salary, then you're doing something wrong.