Do you check work emails on the weekend?
I know people who never miss an email, even on a Saturday night.
And I know others who won’t even open their inbox until Monday morning – no matter what.
I try to strike a balance. I’m not glued to my inbox on weekends, but if something feels important, I’ll reply.
What about you?
Are you team “always responsive” or “strict weekend boundaries”?
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ZapDigits
Nope!
@malithmcrdev why not?
ZapDigits
Dedicated for the family and fun projects.
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Team “always responsive”, because I've had clients who are available only in weekends. I have bumped onto 90% of my clients in weekend sport club events, social gatherings and parties. I never miss any event, be it family, club, sports, cultural meet, even funerals. In 2021, we got 6 clients from the 21 funerals we attended that year.
@mosymimi Wow. Sorry for the question, but how do you manage to find clients at funerals? And for what kind of business? For me, at least, that's a place for mourning.
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@byalexai In a country of 1400M population like India, people who are alive don't have time to think about the person who is not in their earthly live state.
the kind of business did I get that year from funerals?
fresh Flower bidding app for our district.
website + Lead gen tool for a eco-friendly (dry leaf-based) cutlery business.
billboard design and SMS outreach tool for a Dentist's clinic in my hometown. super close relative.
raw meat Delivery WhatsApp chatbot for our village.
small industrial device monitoring app for a Snacks Manufacturing Unit in our district.
Website for a Exotic fruit warehouse owner.
It was covid time, everybody wanted to go online. offline businesses lost their grip.
@mosymimi Very interesting. I hadn’t looked at it from that perspective, but it actually makes a lot of sense.
Yes, I do (exceptions are days when I travel – I try to get as much experience from the travel as possible) :)
@busmark_w_nika Reasonable. You would lose the enjoyment of traveling if you had to reply to emails. I also avoid being professionally active when I travel.
@byalexai And especially, I do not pay for a trip to miss it :D Otherwise, it would be money wasted :D
RunLLM
I always check email, even when I'm on vacation. I feel better being able to at least spot something I need to handle later, traffic it to someone so I don't hold it up, or triage my inbox (thin out the herd, save important stuff for later).
@peter_farago why not focusing only on the travel side?
RunLLM
@byalexai I focus on travel too, but multi-task. Anxiety, maybe. Makes me feel better to know something isn't happening I'm unaware of. It's counterintuitive but I can relax better knowing everything is going fine (by checking email at work).
I absolutely do not have strict boundaries, but the truth is, I love "work" – and "work" certainly isn't the right word to use in my case. It feels more like people asking me about my hobbies, and I'm almost always happy to reply and/or help.
I do think a balance is important though, and at times I feel the need for a rest, so I rest. Nothing is ever as urgent as we think it is :)
@martin_rue Did it feel like a hobby to you from day one, or did it take some time to get used to it?
@byalexai I've been making things since a very young age, so it's just a hobby I grew up with really. Hard to say. I guess it has always felt this way, always felt fun to make things and share them with people.
Honestly, I’ve tried both sides but these days I lean toward weekend boundaries with exceptions. If it’s urgent or team-related, I’ll check in but otherwise, weekends are for recharging.
@suvam_deo That's right. We shouldn't take advantage of our rest time. What was the reason you stopped replying on weekends?
@byalexai I reply to the mail but i don't send mails or distrub mt teammates or Co- Workers in weekends because i feel they deserve the rest and time.
@cristian_stoian_urzica Why so?
I’m pretty relaxed about weekends vs. weekdays—I’ll check emails if I’m free, but replies depend on my mood (or urgency). Either way, it’s done by Monday. Though if I’m deep into my time off? Good luck getting me to open my inbox at all!
@rani_zagita Good approach. Weekends are for rest, and the workweek is for work unless, of course, there’s something urgent over the weekend that simply can’t wait.
I feel like the common thing is to waffle and take a hybrid approach, but I am strict boundaries on the weekend.
Back a few years ago when docker and kubernetes weren't as wide spread sites could indeed catastrophically go down, and I remember many a sprint dedicated to chaos engineering to make sure launches were smooth.
Nowadays I don't think this is the case. I gave myself a longer SLA, setup alerts for if things truly hit the fan to bypass weekend silent mode, but my mental health definitely is in a better place, and better yet this now makes my team ask "can implementing this make the service go down? lets make this robust".
The type of thing that'd make everything buckle at this point would be a large influx of legitimate users, and thats a problem I'm more than happy to get blindsided by!
@csurita A situation where the problem is actually a blessing for the person. It’s when you run into a challenge that’s, in fact, an opportunity. Sometimes I even enjoy those kinds of problems myself. Unexpected, yet pleasant problems!
Trickle
Weekends are for recharging. I avoid my inbox unless it’s truly time-sensitive.
Definitely in the ‘strategic responsiveness’ camp weekends are sacred, but if something genuinely moves the needle, I don’t mind leaning in. It’s all about not letting the inbox dictate your time while staying open to what matters. Respect to both the inbox warriors and the boundary enforcers.
@vivek_sharma_25 Absolutely, my view is the same. Everyone should decide for themselves. I believe there are positives to both approaches.
I try to keep weekends email-free, but I do check in if something seems important. It’s all about finding a healthy balance without burning out.
@shatoolshub yes, keep the balance!
Phygital+
I try not to check the work-related emails on the weekend, but I usually take the time on Sunday evenings to read the one folder with all the digests and main updates from the week. Really useful to always keep track of what is happening in the sphere, but also doesn't take too much of my working time!
@dariawind Good strategy. If you don’t check, Monday can turn into a nightmare.
Only if it's urgent or time-sensitive.
@lucytaylor01 how can you tell if it's urgent?
@byalexai Trick question, haha, well it's depend on my mood actually.
I’m the same—I like to keep weekends mostly email-free, but I’ll respond if something urgent comes through. It’s all about finding that healthy balance!
티비위키
@honest_beam Nice.
Finding the balance is the key.
Never. I believe everyone needs their own space on weekends.