Remote work, especially in a world affected by COVID-19, naturally leads to “flex time.” Employees with small children might be getting the majority of their work done at night after the kids are in bed. Others are working early and hoping to quit early. Still others are starting late and working late.
If everyone on your team is working different hours, you may be getting emails and messages at all hours of the day, night, or weekend—which can quickly create an always available, or “always-on” environment, Harvard Business Review writes.
That might be necessary in some industries during these challenging times, but certainly not in every industry and not for everyone in any industry. So how can you accommodate your employees’ needs while still protecting your culture and your team’s work-life balance?
The key is to embrace and encourage flex time while also defining clear “communication hours” (for example, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). Outside of those hours, employees should be encouraged to change their settings to “Do Not Disturb” and to use the “schedule send” feature of their email client so that messages get delivered only during communication hours.
If any correspondence must happen outside of the set communication hours, such as for urgent or time-sensitive issues, make them phone or text only. This way people can comfortably close down all other communication channels like email, Slack, instant messenger, etc. The act of having to call or text someone is usually enough to give the sender a pause to think, “Do I really need this person now, or can the communication wait?” This allows everyone on your team to work whenever is appropriate for them, but not feel like they have to work all the time to accommodate everyone else’s schedule. Read the full story.
