Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night from a message from your bosses asking you for an update on a project?

Are you constantly bombarded with the never-ending buzzing of WhatsApp work chats or telegram notifications from your co-workers?

Do you ever wish you could simply switch off your phone and ignore all these messages so that you could get a good night’s sleep? 

Well, your wish may indeed come true as more firms are being encouraged to set clearer boundaries and rules regarding post-work communication.

Policy Template to set clearer guidelines

A policy template created by the Alliance for Action aimed to help organisations implement policies that set clearer boundaries for after-hours work communication. The template acknowledges that some business-critical or time-sensitive situations would require urgent communication but there could be rostered schedules with a list of designated contact points. This ensures that not only one person needs to be available at all times, allowing everyone to take proper breaks away from work. For other types of non-urgent communication after working hours, the individual should also state the issue, the required action, and the desired outcome clearly to avoid any misunderstandings.

Managing after-hours work communication

Some individuals may feel obligated to respond immediately whenever they receive a work message or email. This is also known as the email urgency bias where we feel the need to reply quickly to our superiors if not we may risk the perception of being lazy or unreliable. In turn, we may overestimate the urgency or importance of the after-hours work communication and feel stressed or anxious. On the other hand, the rest of us may also be guilty of perpetuating such odd hours of communication with our colleagues as well. Even when the tasks are not urgent, we sometimes send messages late at night after we have settled our personal commitments e.g. putting children to bed. It is thus very important for expectations to be set on how we should respond to each other regarding such after-hours work communication. 

Simple actions such as being clear about expected actions to communications and timelines to respond as well as making use of scheduling functions to send messages during office hours if senders tend to compose late-night emails. You could also give feedback to the management on how to improve current habits of communicating after working hours and its impact on the employees. Working together with your managers how formalizing policies regarding the acceptable degree of after-hours communication and how to roll out such policies.
 

Requesting for unplugged time-off 
The advent of technology has made it harder for people to unplug even when they are on vacation or having rest days. Indeed, being easily reachable on our devices has made the fear of missing out (FOMO) of work-related information even more salient these days. However, there has been much research conducted on the importance of proper rest and downtime not just for unwinding and recharging, but also for us to stay motivated and alert when we are back at work. With the blurring of working hours due to remote working, close to 80 percent of US professionals surveyed also reported that they plan on taking up more vacation days in 2021.

In short, go ahead and request for undisturbed time-off if you feel the need to take a break from the intensity of your work.

How would you communicate with your bosses' expectations regarding after-hours work communication? Are there ways to plan ahead such that you switch off from work during your rest days?