Sorry, snowflakes. I am not available every second of the weekend when you send an email or a request that I proof your work due on Monday. I watch football and am drunk most of the weekend. Too bad for you. Anyone else have this problem?
Dr. Python
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ReplyDeleteFootball and beer all weekend? No I dont have that problem :-). I even manage to ignore the snowflakes. But my gradflakes? Sigh.... I told them to send me stuff on Friday for our Monday one-on-ones because I "dont work on Sundays" so they send me stuff about 11pm on Sat or even 9am Monday, because apparently, I am suppose to work midnight on Sat and 6am on Monday to make up for this slacking off on Sundays.....
DeleteI got no problem with that at all.
ReplyDeleteDr.P. I am with you. The weekend is MINE. Unfortunately, I have collegues who pride themselves on their quick turn around on email. One said, "I know the policy is to respond within two business days, but I almost always respond within a few hours, and the longest it ever took me was 36 hours- that was the weekend of my wedding!" I mentioned that it doesn't hurt them to wait. S/he looked at me like I punched a kitten.
ReplyDeleteI regret to say I'm accessible 7 days a week. The first thing I do when I get up (around 5 am) is answer student email. The last thing I do at night is answer student email. I'd like to quit, but I can't make myself. My students regale each other with tales of how quickly I return their questions or drafts. "I sent him something at 3 pm and he returned it at 3:05!
ReplyDeleteFor gradflakes, I let it fester until they come and talk to me face-to-face in my office. It takes a few weeks, usually.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind working on weekends; it's a tradeoff I consciously make for having a flexible weekday schedule.
ReplyDeleteWe can add a new mantra: It doesn't hurt them to wait.
ReplyDeleteWe can add a new mantra: It doesn't hurt them to wait.
ReplyDeleteWe can add a new mantra: It doesn't hurt them to wait.
ReplyDeleteI have it in my syllabus--email happens between 8 and 4 during the week. After 4, don't expect a reply until after 8 the following day. After 4 on Friday, don't expect a response til Monday.
ReplyDeleteThis has been fun, since my assignments are due electronically in the LMS on Sunday night, so if they do their stuff at the last minute, they often screw themselves when they end up hitting a wall. Those who work ahead, steadily, get help. I can't help them at 10 pm on a Sunday because I have been asleep for an hour at that point. So far I've had about 8 or so students (spread across 3 sections) come up on the deadline and miss it and email me asking if I will accept late work. Since these early assignments are small (in the grand scheme of the semester), I don't, because I want them to learn to turn their work in on time.
I am also considered by some of my peers to be a hard-ass. I don't care, because I don't have to deal with straggling assignments all semester long.
Enjoy your weekends guilt-free, Dr. Python!
I am just sad that this is one more common courtesy item that now needs to be itemized in the syllabus. I will take this advice and walk on the wild side, on my own, from Friday afternoons until Monday mornings.
Delete"It doesn't hurt them to wait."
ReplyDeleteI can see that as the CM banner for the next little while.
I'm good with making them wait, but I know myself: if I don't answer it when it arrives, or soon thereafter, I will completely forget to answer it. I need to figure out how to flag things in email so that I CAN wait until later.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't your email program mark things unread (bold?) until you open them? That's how I know if I haven't read an email.
DeleteIf your inbox is too clogged with unread email to find the ones from students, then you need some Inbox Drano:
Setup. Give students a standard subject line to use, and set up rules or spam filters to get rid of junk mail. Make folders to move stuff into, including one for each class and committee, one for Department Bullshit, and a Mailbox Purgatory named Backlog. I also have a folder called "Real GD Emails" for those extra fun ones from students and Suits. (Thank you, CM.)
Daily (M - Th for me, as stated in my syllabus, though sometimes I check on weekends): Skim and/or delete all-campus announcements, reply briefly to colleagues when possible, and move stuff into folders. That leaves only recent email in the inbox. Sort by subject line. There are the unread student emails, waiting in line for responses. After replying and moving them into class folders, what's left are the emails requiring complex thought.
As for the students who didn't use the right subject line, I check the spam folder every couple of weeks. It doesn't hurt them to wait.
My syllabus says that I will answer email within 24 hours, Monday to Friday, and that I sometimes check email on weekends. But it also says that I reserve the right not to check email on weekends, either because I'm doing something else, or because I simply don't want to, and that students should not assume that emails sent after Friday evening will be answered before Monday.
ReplyDeleteLike Dr. Mindbender, I don't really have a problem with answering emails on the weekend, because I see it as part of the trade-off for flexible hours and significant control over my work schedule. Still, I don't want them to think that they have some sort of right to a response 24 hours a day, seven days a week.