Late night emails

BelieveBeOK

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Do you send them? How do you perceive them as the receiver?

I'm very unconventional in terms of working hours at my company. Majority of people here will come into the office at 6 or 7 am. I have no qualms with rocking up at 10 or 11 am but will typically be the last to leave. Beyond that I will work into the early hours and send emails to people (internally, never to clients)

Personally I find that working outside of business hours is where I can be the most productive as I don't have to worry about being bombarded with emails, "quick" chats, phone calls and meeting requests etc. However when I'm dealing with something, I will reply as soon as I'm done and move on to the next thing even if it's @1am.

Just wondering how many other people do this and more importantly how you receive this when you get a late reply from it?

My expectation is certainly not to get an immediate reply however I won't lie, as far as my direct reports are concerned; part of me is hoping that it will light a fire under them and get them to push further.
 

Rawtid

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Typically I don't send/reply to emails outside of normal business hours unless I knew the person was awake. I'll do whatever tasks required then reply to all necessary during normal time.

My company's outlook will pop up a warning that says it's outside of normal business hours and confirm if you want to send and I like that. We get so many emails, that it could be buried by the time they see it, so I prefer to wait.
 

Macallik86

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I only send emails outside of working hours when there's a fire I'm putting out which forces me to work late and want the world to know.

There are times where I might slack during the day, feel guilty and work through some tickets after work, but I would typically just delay my emails to be sent during regular business hours. I don't want to give the impression that I'm working/available beyond business hours, and I don't want others to feel guilty about enjoying their off-work time.
 

Sonny Bonds

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I used to do this with recruiters and I'm sure it turned a few of them off. So now I send scheduled emails.
 

Rell Lauren

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It's unprofessional. Wait until the next business day. Unless it's something they absolutely need to see, it can wait.
 

BelieveBeOK

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It's unprofessional. Wait until the next business day. Unless it's something they absolutely need to see, it can wait.

I could send scheduled emails but like I said, I work unconventional hours and as far as I know, for the email to go through at the scheduled time, the laptop has to be open. I want my email to be the first you see in the morning and if I only wake up at 8:30 then there's a high chance that may not happen.

Grateful for your take though because it's no doubt shared by others. Thank you
 

Sonny Bonds

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I could send scheduled emails but like I said, I work unconventional hours and as far as I know, for the email to go through at the scheduled time, the laptop has to be open. I want my email to be the first you see in the morning and if I only wake up at 8:30 then there's a high chance that may not happen.
What?
 

BelieveBeOK

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As far as I know...am I wrong?

On my company Outlook, you don't actually schedule a specific time, you only set a time which the email can be sent *after* e.g. it will say "do not send this email *before* 8:00am" i.e. it can send anytime after just not before.


My understanding is that it will sit in your outbox until you open your Outlook and the time condition is met. e.g. I "schedule" an email for 8:00 the next day but if I only open Outlook at 10:00am the email will send at 10.

Hope that makes sense and again, I'm not sure if that is the case. Just my understanding.

Edit: How to Delay Delivery of an Email in Outlook
WARNING!

A delayed email will only send while Outlook is still open. You must set the sending time for a time when you still have Outlook running. If you try to close Outlook before a delayed message has sent, Outlook will remind you that you have unsent emails in your Outbox.
 
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Macallik86

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^Completely forgot about that.

FWIW, I just thought about (and tested) the cloud-based Outlook (office.com) and it allows delayed messages if you click the arrow to see more options next to the 'Send' button. 99% sure they don't require your computer to be logged in for future reference.
 
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