The 2 A.M. Email: A Public Display Of Ambition

The 2 A.M. Email: A Public Display Of Ambition

(Article Written by Randi Zuckerberg (Zuckerberg Media) for Linkedin. Original article can be found here.)

In today’s working world, there is a lot of pressure to always be “on.” If a colleague is consistently sending emails late into the night, we may feel pressured to do so as well. Whenever I wake up and see an email sent to me at 2 a.m., I feel guilty – what am I doing sleeping when somebody else is up working? Am I not being productive or available enough?

Sending emails late into the night sends a flashing message to coworkers, “I’m ambitious!,” but email doesn't have to be a competition of who can respond faster or who can function on less sleep. Maybe that colleague emailing you at 11 p.m. isn't doing it to one-up you or be seen as Employee of the Month. Some of us send emails at odd hours because that’s when email best fits into our lives. As a mom, I’m most productive and able to catch up on my messages late at night when my 2-year-old son is sleeping and the house is finally quiet. I’m often in meetings all day, and want to spend quality time with my family when I get home - so it’s hard to find a solid chunk of time to give my full attention to my inbox. Around 11 p.m. is my time to plug in again – but this doesn’t mean I expect my colleagues to respond right away or even read my emails before they go to bed. We all have our own routines, including specific times when we are able to focus best. For some, this time may be early in the morning. For others, it’s during the work day in between meetings, on weekends or during a daily commute.

Many managers send emails late at night and seem to be connected around the clock. While some do expect their colleagues to read and respond 24/7 (talk about stressful!), many do not. The problem is, most managers don’t communicate these expectations to their colleagues. It's becoming increasingly popular for stressed employees to request "overtime" pay for the extra hours they spend on their devices. Whenever a new employee begins working with me, I go out of my way to let them know that I work best late at night – but just because they receive late night emails from me, does not mean I expect them to immediately respond. It’s important to clearly let your colleagues (especially direct reports) know when you expect them to be available. They should not have to break into a cold sweat every time their phone buzzes with a new email late at night, or sleep with one eye open and their phone beside their pillow. Tell your colleagues if it’s an urgent matter requiring immediate response, you will call them (and only do this if it’s an emergency!).
In an ideal world, I wish businesses would shut off inter-office email delivery after 9 p.m., so people could send as many late-night emails as they want, without being delivered until the following morning. That way people would never know the difference between someone that efficiently got all their work done by early evening, or someone who stayed up all night working on a project.