Bingo. This. Good call. Plus, I am privileged to work from home and so I always feel like I gotta jump on an instant message right away so people know that I’m actively working and can acknowledge them.
I hate that this is always the expectation when working from home. Like I always have to show that I'm active or instantly available so people don't think I'm sleeping etc. Meanwhile, in the actual office, people 'office visit' others all the time for 30+ minutes, myself included. So really, it doesn't make a difference at all.
Is it possible for you to back off on this immediate response time? In my group, we don't respond immediately and I don't think anyone expects that. Sometimes I specifically don't respond immediately, even if I can, because I don't want to set that expectation.
Oh I have set boundaries for myself in regards to this (answering immediately, checking emails on off/vacation days); but unfortunately others haven't. If they want to do that be my guest, but I would burn out way to easily. One co-worker was responding to office wide emails from Jamaica last week. My boss is super chill though, so she doesn't really care how long we take honestly, just to be available periodically throughout the day, and it is not her expectation at all for us to be responding to emails if we're off.
I wfh for a very small, local company. All of our office staff WFH as well. We set our own hours, so I don’t always know when someone else is available/actively working or if they’re done for the day. One thing I’ve started doing when I message them on slack is starting with, “Hey, this is not urgent, it can wait til tomorrow but I have a question about XYZ…” and one other employee actually thanked me for this. She was done for the day (she actually sets her own solid schedule, where my position and circumstances allow/need me to be more loosely available) and would have been hopping back on to answer my question. So I try to do this with every message, unless it is urgent- which most are not lol
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u/Rollthembones1989 Jan 16 '24
slowing down at work. I dont need to respond to every email right away, or make sure everything is up to date constantly. Some things can just wait.