A special brand of Sunday Dread
October 25, 2024
Hi Karyn, would love some help with this.
I’m in an organisation that talks a good game about work/life balance but we have a COO making life hell with his weekend email emergencies (that are never actually emergencies). On the most recent long weekend I got copied into emails on Saturday, Sunday AND Monday and none of the issues he was raising had to be (or even could be) dealt with before everybody was back in the office on Tuesday.
I get triggered by these turning up in my inbox in my rare spare time and I’m in the privileged position of being his peer so I can get away with ignoring them until business hours. But they have a huge impact on my team members that get copied in and feel obliged because of his executive position to respond. Also (I’m told) on his own line reports. It’s all well and good telling people not to read emails at home but we’re an organisation that puts a high value on client responsiveness (we’re in the care sector) so my people, and particularly my managers, are conscientious about being contactable.
I’m relatively new to the place and still feeling my way but I can see this really damaging the good work we’re trying to do around team culture. What do you suggest I do?
Thanks,
TJ
Dear TJ
Ugh. Yep. There’s nothing guaranteed to destroy cultural change potential faster than an executive acting in direct contravention to the new norm you’re trying to establish.
Australia’s right to disconnect law gives you quite a lot of help in this scenario and it’s worth raising the issue with HR to ensure the law and your organisation’s appropriate response to the law is being communicated effectively, starting with the executive leadership team.
I’d be surprised, though, if your COO hasn’t already had exposure to this messaging, so perhaps there’s something else — possibly attitudinal, possibly habitual — going on with him which means he’s not registering the change in law and organisational responsibility.
I can understand you’re tentative about challenging the COO directly on this, but if you’re his peer and relatively new, you’re in a unique position to do something quite powerful here — but it will take some courage and some strategy and some care in monitoring the COO’s response.
First best strategy is a private word with him. Something along the lines of
“In the past my teams have been challenged by unclear boundaries between work and private time so I’ve decided I need to reinforce the communication about their right to disconnect.
“I’m telling them in person and in writing that there’s no need for them to respond to any organisational messages sent outside their normal working hours.
“I wanted to let you know, though, that if there’s a genuine emergency out of hours, you can always call my mobile and I’ll pull together a response from my team if necessary.”
And then do as you’ve told him you’re doing and let your teams know they have your full support to turn their work communications off outside of work hours. Encourage them to ensure their out-of-office messages are set and set your own. If practicable, agree that if emergency communication is required it happens by initial text message which can be less disruptive and easier for casual monitoring than checking emails.
You could follow up this conversation with a similar announcement at your next executive leadership team meeting — a reminder of the intent of the organisational policy as well as the legal requirement to protect staff (and executive) wellbeing, and how you have communicated this with your teams. You could ask how other executive members are handling the issue.
If the weekend communications continue, reply to the next email reminding the COO of your conversation with him and asking that your teams and you not be included in future.
His office should be able to show him how to schedule emails so he can work on weekends if he chooses without disrupting the downtime of others.
Try it and let me know how you go — or if you need some coaching around the specifics of your situation, book a call with me.
Much love to you,
Karyn x
