mead107 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 414 days and I will be disconnected Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corp000085 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 It sounds like we have very similar jobs. I also am an itinerant school district employee. I serve 4 schools, but work out of the district's central office. I try really hard to not bring work home with me, but during busy times of the year (November/December, April-June) I usually am forced to bring home work mostly to write reports. I do not check my work email after work hours, however, as I have found that there are lots of lonely/bored educators out there that are more than willing to pester me with emails all night long. It can wait until the morning, and if there is a real crisis (which is very rare) my supervisor and superintendent both have my cell phone number. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly do you do? I'm a special education case manager which requires a ton of report writing, IEP meetings, and consultation with teachers in my department. I don't consider checking email as 'bringing work home" though. I consider that bringing home case files, writing complicated reports, or doing some form of data analysis... Teachers, principals and district admin constantly email after hours. I generally respond because that's my MO, but I don't have to respond... I just don't have time the following day to write something I could have written at 9pm the night before. I also work 12 months, so I love the summer months because there's very few staff and lots of time to get ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo Barbarian Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 A new law in France that was enacted Jan 1st allows workers to not have to "work" while they are off the clock. With many of us carrying our office in our pocket it's sometimes hard or even impossible to disconnect. Emails/texts/calls from clients, vendors, customers, bosses, coworkers getting to you 24/7 is frustrating. I don't think we need a law here in the US like in France. See the big difference is here in the US we have !@#$ing BALLS! I have completely turned off all notifications for my work email to my phone. I leave work it's up to me whether or not I want to continue to work not by boss so no need for the pansy French law. So my question is how many of you continue to work when you're "off the clock" and how many of you do because your boss expects you to? Work NEVER crosses my mind when not there, it's amazing that I remember to go each day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Hammersticks Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 If you don't mind me asking, what exactly do you do? I'm a special education case manager which requires a ton of report writing, IEP meetings, and consultation with teachers in my department. I don't consider checking email as 'bringing work home" though. I consider that bringing home case files, writing complicated reports, or doing some form of data analysis... Teachers, principals and district admin constantly email after hours. I generally respond because that's my MO, but I don't have to respond... I just don't have time the following day to write something I could have written at 9pm the night before. I also work 12 months, so I love the summer months because there's very few staff and lots of time to get ahead. I'm a school psychologist. In do a lot of different things, but the bulk of my job is testing, report writing, consulting, and attending zillions of meetings. The people I care about having 24/7 access to me (my supervisor and superintendent) have my cell number. I try to wait until morning to check my work email. During busy testing times of the year, I usually write a lot of reports at home. I have to to keep up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corp000085 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I'm a school psychologist. In do a lot of different things, but the bulk of my job is testing, report writing, consulting, and attending zillions of meetings. The people I care about having 24/7 access to me (my supervisor and superintendent) have my cell number. I try to wait until morning to check my work email. During busy testing times of the year, I usually write a lot of reports at home. I have to to keep up. Awesome. our school psychologists do some working from home but not too much and only in spurts as you have described. such is the life of a public servant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 (edited) Sort of related: http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/01/10/509101101/your-personal-productivity-efforts-are-doomed-to-fail "...There is an argument to be made that our emphasis on personal productivity is not only slowly killing us, it's also doomed to fail. In fact, this exact argument was made in a piece of long-form journalism by Oliver Burkeman in the Guardian late last month. Since my last book focused on the links between changing cultural "time-logics" and changing scientific conceptions of time, I found a lot to agree with in Burkeman's piece. So, today, let's spend a few moments unpacking our mania for personal productivity, its historical roots — and the reasons why it's a long road to nowhere..." "...The reasons for this are manifold. Much of the gospel of personal productivity begins with an eye towards our jobs. Since we live in an age where you can answer work-related emails at 9 p.m., well, then, shouldn't you? Are you risking your position by not answering it? As Burkeman puts it: " In an era of insecure employment, we must constantly demonstrate our usefulness through frenetic doing." But, as Burkeman shows us, the new and inherently unfair economic conditions driving the range for personal productivity won't change its outcome. As he explains: "An awkward truth about Taylor's celebrated efficiency drives is that they were not very successful: Bethlehem Steel fired him in 1901, having paid him vast sums without any clearly detectable impact on its own profits. (One persistent consequence of his schemes was that they seemed promising at first, but left workers too exhausted to function consistently over the long term.) Exhaustion. That's the key word. That's why our personal productivity efforts are bound to fail in the same way they failed in Taylor's day. In our modern, digitally rendered age we are all are caught by the promise that we can squeeze more out of our time. By abstracting life into a series of digitally manipulatable lists, we're told we can optimize ourselves. In this way, we come to believe we really can get more quality parenting time, while still getting to the gym everyday, while still reading more books, while still learning to cook Indian food and so on and on and on. The list literally goes on forever — and that's the problem..." Edited January 11, 2017 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 (edited) i've always wondered why you don't get more in to agricultural realms. your patience, intelligence and fortitude to do things you could be successful with bees, herbs and spices, and micro greens. none of those take a large amount of land. you're up there where people will pay a lot for that local, homegrown etc stuff and an suburban homestead really does a lot for its neighbors. My mom was an absolute wizard in the garden. She had citrus trees growing in Buffalo. (They were potted and had to moved indoors for the winter, but they fruited!) I see a lot of those kind of folks at the farmers markets where I sell kettle corn in the summer. (Another side project of mine.) I can't really leave work behind because I don't have jobs. I contract for my services. (Right now they include radio programming and commercial production.) I can shut down for holidays but have to be reachable the rest of the time. I haven't been an "employee" since 2004 and frankly I couldn't go back to that arrangement. Edited January 11, 2017 by PromoTheRobot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 I'm a school psychologist. In do a lot of different things, but the bulk of my job is testing, report writing, consulting, and attending zillions of meetings. The people I care about having 24/7 access to me (my supervisor and superintendent) have my cell number. I try to wait until morning to check my work email. During busy testing times of the year, I usually write a lot of reports at home. I have to to keep up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted January 11, 2017 Author Share Posted January 11, 2017 I've known many unfortunate people that have bosses that send them txts and questions throughout the evening. (My wife was one of them.) They were in no position to ask their bosses to stop. It was just the way things were at their work. (It's not a question about having the balls to talk to them.) I have no problem with this law and cannot understand why some law in France would bother you. I'm sorry if you need a law to tell your boss "when I'm off work I'm off work. You can email/text/call all you want I'll reply when I'm back" you have no balls. 414 days and I will be disconnected.......forever!! Added that last bit for you. Good for you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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