Unintended Pressure from Late-Night Emails

It's Sunday night. Are you about to send a work email? Don't. (At least if your company's normal workweek is Monday-Friday! If you work for a company with a work from anywhere anytime policy, that's amazing! This may not apply to you. But in a traditional business with set hours like I've worked in most of my career? Read on.) Before leaving the corporate world earlier this year to launch my own business, I worked in the world of HR for nearly 30 years, leading HR for 25. So I get it. If you are a leader, you can't always shut your laptop at the end of the day Friday and forget about work. But you can try. And if it's not possible, you can help make sure your team has a much needed weekend or evening break. How? If your work hours are all over the place, schedule that email to be sent during normal business hours. It's easy to do in most platforms. (NOTE: This is easiest if your team is in one time zone on roughly the same schedule - it's trickier, but not impossible, to work with each team member's time zone.) You may tell your team it's ok not to respond to emails, or even have a bounceback email that says something like that. But what matters more than intent is impact. The impact of a team leader sending copious amounts of emails during non-work hours can have the unintended consequence of making your team feel like they have to work 24/7. That they have to check their email constantly even when off for a day or a week. And while that may be in some cases, and certainly urgent issues come up from time to time, most of the time it's habit. That feeling of always having to be on is not sustainable to most people - and can and will lead to burnout. We talked about this a lot with the executive team at my last company because my team members felt this deeply from all across the company. As executives we couldn't necessarily always shut off at the end of a day or week. But we could make sure our people did. If we had to be plugged in or wanted to be catching up on email on the weekends, we scheduled our emails to be sent during the workweek. If something came up that was urgent and we needed a team member? We called. It wasn't perfect. But it was something. And it gave my team - who felt comfortable bringing up these concerns - a break. Which gave everyone else who might not have been comfortable saying something a break as well. Most of the time that email can wait. And that gives you a break too.

(On Leadership) The tone is set at the top. Behaviors we exhibit and expectations set start with those who lead the pack. I think about this from having been an early career professional years ago. I try and answer how I’d respond to the question “what would’ve made your job less stressful early on in your corporate responsibility career?” and strangely, it’s the little things that mattered most! Nowadays, as a leader in #CSR these are four things are what I practice on a daily basis for my team. I make these a part of my explicit expectations. Not of what I expect of others, rather, what others on my team can expect of me! 🌙 I don’t send late night or weekend emails – why? Because power dynamics exist, and most things can wait until morning. I let my team know that they shouldn’t be expecting emails during time off. I don’t expect they read or respond during their down time, because I need them recharged and energized when they’re working. Emails around the clock will sabotage that. I also recognize the power dynamics, and that they may feel compelled to read my emails even if I don’t expect it. So, I schedule emails or I just wait until normal working hours. ✨ 💫 I align team member super powers with the needs of the business – Look, we all have strengths, and I do what I can to play into that. “I enjoy being set up to fail,” SAID NOBODY EVER. Aligning unique skills with tasks increases effectiveness, and builds confidence for those doing the work. At the same time, I continue to find opportunities to develop the competencies of others based on their goals and aspirations. 🧠 I protect deep focus time – To do any form of #CSR or Sustainability programming effectively, you MUST have a strategy, action plan and interaction model that advances the work. News flash, these things will NOT create themselves. Without them, the team can feel completely untethered causing stress. As a leader It’s my responsibility to ensure my team’s time is protected so that we can create the roadmap that’ll chart our team’s success. It takes time and undivided attention, so we must protect that. 📜 I send clear agenda and objectives in advance – Why? Because ambiguity isn’t always easy to cope with and stresses people out. Setting an agenda with an objective helps people plan accordingly, show up as their best selves and reassures them of what to expect. Additionally, time is finite and we must be as effective as possible with the little time we have. Look these are just some small things I try and do. These are not unique to #CSR, but as each of us navigate solving incredibly complex social, economic and environmental challenges, these are some simple practices that may help reduce stress over time. It’s often the little things that can be done on a daily basis that matter the most. Do you practice any of these? If there are others that you practice I’d love to hear from you, especially if I can add other tips and tricks to how I navigate my day.

Have you ever felt guilty unplugging during a vacation? Have you ever inadvertently (or directly) made a team member feel like they had to stay "on" during vacation? I see this, and have participated in this destructive approach in my career. Now I see it in executive teams of clients across many industries and organizations. We say we want a wonderful culture that supports work-life balance/work-life integration. We tell our teams it is okay to set boundaries. But this recent study from Korn Ferry made me think about the impacts of this counterintuitive and harmful practice - and sharing some of the solutions I've seen contribute to transformation. The study reveals that employees who DO unplug - who use their out-of-office messages, don't respond to late-night emails, or take real vacations - are often seen as less committed and even less promotable. That perception isn’t just unfair. It’s actively harmful—to people, culture, and performance. Always-On Expectations Are a Recipe for Burnout The World Health Organization recognizes burnout as a workplace hazard, not a personal failing. Gallup data shows that 44% of employees feel daily stress at work, and one of the biggest contributors is the pressure to be “always available.” We now know that chronic overwork leads to lower creativity, slower decision-making, and increased errors. It’s not just unsustainable—it’s inefficient. Culture Suffers When Boundaries Aren’t Respected When leaders reward 24/7 availability over actual outcomes, they send a dangerous message: that personal well-being is secondary to professional optics. Over time, this undermines psychological safety, engagement, and trust. Teams where people can unplug are more collaborative, more loyal, and more innovative. Miriam Nelson of Korn Ferry says, many organizations “espouse the value of balance” but fail to align their systems and recognition practices with those values. The result? Employees who quietly burn out while trying to look busy and plugged-in. What can we do about this? 👉🏽Creating a culture where unplugging is safe—and even celebrated—requires more than policy. It takes modeling from the top. When leaders actually take their time off, respect communication boundaries, and reward output over constant presence, it gives everyone permission to do the same. 👉🏽Stop pretending that exhaustion equals excellence. If we want long-term performance and a culture people want to stay in, we must start valuing restoration as much as we value productivity. 👉🏽Let your people unplug. Your culture—and your results—depend on it.

Can we make it a standard practice to delay-send emails that aren't urgent? (Which, honestly, is almost all of them - don't come at me with your "I couldn't get to it until 8 PM on Thursday night, but we need to stay on schedule..." excuses. Accept that your colleague will get to it in the morning and shouldn't be on standby for a late-night email). I am not available 24/7. If you email me on a Friday night or Saturday morning, I will not respond until at least Monday. I say at least because there's a HIGH likelihood that a weekend email will get buried in my inbox or marked 'read' if I open it on my phone by accident and I'll forget about it come Monday. This is a boundary that has been incredibly difficult for me to put in place as a proposal professional. I spent a good chunk of my career being told that I need to be available 24/7 to support the schedule of a SME/PM that has "more important" work to do during the day. As a result, I feel hardwired to respond to emails instantly. I get extremely anxious when I receive odd-hour emails (and yes, I have do not disturb and such on my phone; the notifications still slip through sometimes). That's why I have a timed-send policy for all emails I draft outside of normal working hours. I don't ever want to be the cause of someone else's anxiety because they wake up to an email from me or have their notifications on and see one right before going to bed. TL;DR: If you want to do one very small thing to support a proposal pro today, delay-send your emails and restrict your communication to within working hours.

Refrain from sending e-mails at night The members of many organizations I work with complain about work/life imbalance. I’ve shared a number of tools in these posts on how to better achieve balance in line with one’s priorities, but I have not written enough about the leader’s role in driving the core problem. We’re not talking about toxic leaders here. Those folks are in an entirely different category and warrant special attention. My comments are focused on the caring, well-meaning leader who realizes that a number of his employees will stay in the office as long as the boss, regardless of circumstances. That leader knows that the workers have a life too, so he does not typically arrive too early or leave too late. He frequently takes at least some portion of work home because there are just too many important tasks to get done during regular business hours. We’ve all been there. The problem arises when the leader opens up his laptop at home and starts firing off e-mails. The cascading effect is that the employees understand that their boss wants them “on duty” around the clock. Even if you preface your direction with a comment like “you don’t need to answer this until tomorrow,” some of your employees will answer right away. Others will learn to do so too, and before too long, their lives are out of balance and they do not control their own clocks. This is what I suggest: continue your behavior with taking needed work home (but be careful with your own balance). Go ahead and draft e-mails if you need to pass information, ask questions, and assign tasks, but don’t hit “send” until you get to work the next day. There will (of course) be times when you’re dealing with an emergency or need an immediate answer. That’s what they make the telephone for. Pick it up, make the call, and get your answer or give direction, just don’t do it with e-mail. If you’re like me, I sometimes wake up with what I call “monkey brain” and can’t get back to sleep. I then decide to start my day early and stretch, read, write, etc. When I was still in the Army, I had a lot of folks working for me and I found out that I was driving them crazy with my early morning e-mails. Looking back, I wish I had better discipline to wait until I got to work to hit the send button. You can learn from my example but it’s not always a good one. Enjoy your leadership journey! #leadershipdevelopment #leadershipadvice #businessstrategies #leadershipskills

"'I'm sending this at 9pm but no rush!' Yeah, I've made this big mistake, too. I thought adding 'not urgent' to my late-night emails made me a flexible boss. I was wrong. The truth is, there's no such thing as a 'no rush' email from your CEO at midnight. What's your company's unwritten rule about after-hours communication? I learned this because my team feels safe enough to give me constructive feedback. Someone once told me they felt guilty about not responding to my 'optional' late-night messages ASAP. That's when the schedule send function became my best friend. If I'm catching up at 9pm, those emails go out at 9am tomorrow. I knew to be an effective leader and to maintain our culture of balance & belonging, I had to give people real permission to disconnect. Your team doesn't need to know you're a night owl. What they need is clear permission to have true off hours.

In The ONE Thing we teach: “When you're supposed to be working, work, and when you're supposed to be playing, play." Sounds simple, right? During a workshop I delivered in 2017, it came to light that the CEO's evening "brain dump" emails were keeping his entire leadership team on high alert during family time. Not because the CEO expected immediate responses, but because his team didn't know that and felt the pressure to respond. The solution was elegantly simple.  👉 Establish clear emergency communication protocols. 👉 Give explicit permission for leaders to delay responses until the next work day. Today's leaders have unprecedented tools to respect boundaries while staying productive. Email scheduling, delayed messaging, and clear communication expectations can transform team dynamics overnight. The leadership lesson: Our habits become our team's stress. Model the boundaries we want for our culture. 🌟 Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/g6_s7h2d @the1thingbook #theonething #leadership #boundaries

Executives, stop sending needless emails and Slack messages to employees on the weekend. Telling them they don’t need to reply is not enough. I’ve seen a few execs add a note to their email signature to the effect of: “My working hours may not be your working hours. Please do not feel obligated to reply outside of your normal work schedule.” I think that’s great! But it’s short-sighted. Even if you have a formalized company policy that messages need not be responded to outside of regular work hours, when an employee gets an email from an executive on a weekend or late in the night, it’s disruptive and stressful. As many people at Demandbase can attest… I used to be guilty of this too. I think about work items during the weekend. Like I’m sure a lot of of you do too.  I used to reach out in real time when I had questions, even if it wasn’t time sensitive or strategic.  And it forced people to think about what’s on my mind. Until, I discovered a simple solution… Use the SCHEDULE button! Make a commitment to yourself to schedule messages, not just fire them off.  You’ll be amazed that you lose no velocity and increase company energy. It’s not only better for employees, it’s better for you and the culture. P.S. Of course there are urgent items that sometimes need to be covered in real time over a weekend–like deal work at the close of the quarter, or time sensitive legal agreements, or big product releases. But the majority of communication we think is urgent over the weekend can be scheduled for the work week.