School Expects Emails during Business Hours Only

cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:06
Last edited 03/02/2025 - 14:57 by 1 other user

This one is quite baffling to me - our daughter's high school just sent an email to all parents and students, basically instructing everyone that emails should only be sent to staff members during work hours (8.20-4.20pm Monday to Friday). At first, I thought they meant that staff are only expected to respond to emails during work hours which is a fair and reasonable request. But no, they literally say "if you email a staff member, please ensure you schedule send it, so they receive it during work hours."

I remember last year when my daughter sent an email request for assistance to her maths teacher over the weekend, she was received a stern reply in the email to the same effect as above. That time I gave the teacher the benefit of the doubt (maybe she was having a bad weekend or whatever) but it looks like this is their policy.

I am all for work life balance, nor do I expect teachers or staff to be working outside of hours. But working in corporate where people work in different time zones, or basically fire off emails from their phones at all hours, or those night owls that squeeze in an hour of work at night so they can leave an hour early for school pickups etc. - the usual expectation is that email is an "offline" medium and the recipients are free to respond during their usual working hours. It would be ludicrous to inform my customers and suppliers to please schedule emails so I receive them during MY working hours.

Anyway, just wanted everyone's thoughts… has the world gone mad?

Edit: has anyone seen this kind of policy in other schools or unis?

I've pasted the communication below.

Communication guidelines for parents
Dear Parents/Guardians,

We value open communication between our staff and families within our School community.

The demands on schools are ever increasing and it can be difficult at times to put in place work boundaries. We have developed communication guidelines for our school community in an attempt to find ways to support staff wellbeing and sustainable work practices. We are seeking your support with the following guidelines:

If you email a staff member, please ensure you schedule send it, so they receive it during work hours (8:20 - 4:20 pm Monday - Friday). Staff may choose to respond to your emails outside of their work hours, but you should not expect them to do so.
A response within 2 working days (if a staff member is not absent) is the expected time frame. Staff members will activate an ‘Out of Office’ message if they are absent from work, so that you are aware their response may be delayed and it will direct you to where you can seek assistance for urgent matters.

We have also communicated this to students.
A copy of these guidelines will be on the parent portal for future reference.
Thank you for your assistance with this.
Kind Regards,
xxx xxxxx
Acting Principal.

Poll Options

  • 894
    Emails should be able to be sent/received any time
  • 25
    Emails should only be sent during working hours
  • 2
    I have misunderstood/misinterpreted the guidelines
  • 23
    Yawn, where's the bargain?
Education & Work

Comments

  • Duckie2hh on 03/02/2025 - 10:09
    +71

    I support the fact that you shouldn't expect to work/respond to emails outside of working hours, but sending emails are completely different.

    Perhaps you should send an email reminding them the world works in more time zones than wherever the school is situated in.

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:21
      +25

      Haha I will make sure to send them one at 4.30 pm (woooooo)

      • boomramada on 03/02/2025 - 10:31
        +6

        It's time to change schools as schools don't know how the Internet/emails works!

        BTW, why do they still use emails? I thought they are using apps now?

        • wisdomtooth on 04/02/2025 - 16:07
          +1

          It's time to change schools

          Schools are run by Karens; it's in the job description, I'm afraid.

      • RealUltimatePapo on 03/02/2025 - 18:30
        +10

        Make it 4:30am

        Show them who has the power here

      • IM-Cheap on 05/02/2025 - 13:34
        +5

        Maybe send a link on how to manage their "Do not disturb" settings.

    • DashCam AKA Rolts on 03/02/2025 - 12:55
      +2

      Perhaps you should send an email reminding them the world works in more time zones than wherever the school is situated in.

      The majority of students are attending a school in the same time zone as their parents/care-givers are residing/working in.

    • Bugsarse on 05/02/2025 - 22:35

      Just send them one that says "I'm sorry are you from the past?"

  • Danstar on 03/02/2025 - 10:14
    +6

    Yes, the world has gone mad.

  • jv on 03/02/2025 - 10:15
    +76

    Principal doesn't understand how emails work.

    • Pussqunt on 03/02/2025 - 19:01
      +7

      Na, probs mandated teaches have email on their personal phone.

      Doubt the principal understands muting and is dictating this instead.

      • ColtNoir on 04/02/2025 - 11:06
        +3

        You can schedule notifications on your phone for certain hours. I do it for my work, why can’t the onus be on school staff to configure their phones accordingly.
        Control what you can control, which is your staffs configuration.

    • jetblack on 04/02/2025 - 08:17
      +23

      Bang on. This is policy set by someone who is tech illiterate, dealing with a teacher(s) who has raised a complaint because they are also tech illiterate.

      IMO the solution is to respond letting the principal know that is an unreasonable request and that teachers should be provided instructions/support from the department to turn off email notifications so they are not unreasonably bombarded out of hours.

      • Miami Mall Alien on 04/02/2025 - 13:31
        +1

        This is policy set by someone who is tech illiterate, dealing with a teacher(s) who has raised a complaint because they are also tech illiterate.

        100%.

        You can put the Outlook desktop app into offline mode if unexpectedly receiving an email outside of "approved" hours is going to give you an aneurysm. Same goes with most mobile mail clients, which normally let you set a different synchronisation schedule for off-peak hours (e.g. outside of work hours). Or on a higher-level, you can configure mail flow rules on mail servers to simply not deliver emails within specific time windows so that they're queued for delayed delivery.

        This is an issue that could have easily been resolved simply by involving IT in the discussion but instead as is so typical of these kinds of scenarios, a group of curmudgeonly, crusty, tech-illiterate boomers have decided that this ridiculously heavy-handed approach is the only method of resolving what is at its core almost certainly an understaffing/workload problem which absolutely nothing to do with children's parents.

        • jv on 04/02/2025 - 22:12
          +2

          a group of curmudgeonly, crusty, tech-illiterate boomers

          and to think we entrust these people to educate our children !!! 😲

          • Kandrew on 04/02/2025 - 22:49
            -5

            @jv: A group of curmudgeonly, crusty, tech-illiterate boomers.

            Is that what you really think about people who don’t have the same tech skills as you?

            It’s quite offensive. And don’t say that it’s about how I perceive your statement.

            And just something else to think about. There are many younger people who do not like technology.

            (Yes, I’m prepared to be downvoted for saying this.)

            • jv on 04/02/2025 - 23:39
              +3

              @Kandrew:

              Is that what you really think about people who don’t have the same tech skills as you?

              We are talking about using email, not programming in python.

    • Mikeer on 04/02/2025 - 19:46

      (profanity) emails, how do they work?

      • Muppet Detector on 10/02/2025 - 22:10

        I thought email was the gender neutral pronoun for hemails and shemails

    • viper8548 on 07/02/2025 - 03:37

      i have never agreed with jv this much

    • jv on 03/02/2025 - 10:18
      +35

      Yes, depending on your email client.

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:35
      +28

      Probably not, but I would hate for my kids to develop a skewed sense of how communication or emails work in the real world, or have a fear of reaching out for assistance.

      Side note: tried looking for the send later option on my mail client but I think my mac/mail client is too old and doesn't have that feature. (Older mac running Monterey)

        • jetblack on 04/02/2025 - 08:24
          +19

          Your kids are learning… tech literacy (it's not that hard to schedule an email in 2025).

          The only way out of hours emails are a problem are either if staff are actively checking, receiving push notifications, or hooking their work emails up to their personal emails. All are easily avoided.

          It seems the staff need to learn some tech literacy in how to turn off notifications. It's not that hard in 2025.

          • Chandler on 04/02/2025 - 14:17
            +1

            @jetblack: This.

            When I saw that Outlook had the feature to "Schedule send" I wondered why, and I suspect this is the reason: so that staff that don't know how to switch off (either personally or technically) aren't getting emails outside of hours. Not my problem, in my opinion. The only benefit to schedule send is so that your email pops in to the top of their inbox and pings them while they are working, so they're more likely to read/action it than if it were down the bottom of the list.

            • Miami Mall Alien on 04/02/2025 - 14:32
              +3

              @Chandler:

              When I saw that Outlook had the feature to "Schedule send" I wondered why, and I suspect this is the reason

              That feature has existed in Microsoft Outlook since 1997 before smart phones, mail clients on phones or the "right-to-disconnect" discussion ever existed. It's not there because of technological illiteracy, it's there because it's a useful feature to have for many, many scenarios.

            • AnophthalmiaCervidae on 04/02/2025 - 14:41
              +2

              @Chandler: For the long lunch.
              You can schedule emails to trickle out when you are out of the office and people think you are still working.

              • Chandler on 04/02/2025 - 15:09

                @AnophthalmiaCervidae: The people likely to care about you taking a long lunch already know since you're at the office, or if you work remotely are monitoring you using more than just the emails you send.a

      • frewer on 06/02/2025 - 17:04

        Anyway, just wanted everyone's thoughts… has the world gone mad?

        Where've you been the last 10yrs

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2025 - 10:41
      +8

      I wouldn’t even know without digging around Gmail app… I’m not even sure it can? Weirdly even Instagram these days comes with a reminder it’s late, do you want to schedule message? To which I of course ignore and I must send my bestie random reels at 3am.

      • askbargain on 03/02/2025 - 11:19
        +4

        I would assume it’s next to the send button? Usually a drop down or right click

        • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2025 - 11:23
          +2

          Lmao it was under the three dot button… which honestly I musta been tunnel visioning the whole time. Never noticed it before. Cheers brah

    • [Deactivated] on 03/02/2025 - 20:45
      +1

      Desktop clients can only schedule send which they’re turned on, so yea.

      • Daabido on 03/02/2025 - 22:22

        It actually depends on what's happening on the back end, so sometimes you are right.

  • jv on 03/02/2025 - 10:17

    I remember last year when my daughter sent an email request for assistance to her maths teacher over the weekend, she was received a stern reply in the email

    Is this a government school?

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:19
      +3

      Yes… girls high school, 1200 students, so pretty sizeable.

      • wisdomtooth on 04/02/2025 - 15:58

        Precisely; the solution to everything is mandating behaviour on everyone else but oneself. Typical public service mindset.

  • CaptainJack on 03/02/2025 - 10:18
    +9

    Yeah that seems an odd policy, but it also wouldn't bother me to use schedule send - it doesn't take much effort.

    • kiriakoz on 06/02/2025 - 15:47
      +1

      Sadly, a lot of people on here either have Asperger's or are debate lords on the internet. Whilst I do think this whole thing is ridiculous, I'd just schedule send and move on with my life as I've got 35 other things on my todo list. Also, my revenge is for them to stay ignorant about being able to schedule email alerts, which others have identified (correctly imo) as the likely cause of this rule.

      • Muppet Detector on 06/02/2025 - 16:09
        +2

        Heads up.

        There is no such thing as Asperger's anymore.

        Guess you missed that email.

        • Ramrunner on 06/02/2025 - 16:10
          +3

          It's coming tomorrow at 8:20

          :)

        • Kandrew on 13/02/2025 - 18:49

          Although Asperger syndrome has been retired from use by medical professionals, some who received the diagnosis prior to 2013 still use the term and see it as an important part of their identity. Others prefer to refer to themselves as autistic. Both are correct; it is just a matter of personal choice.

          Source:
          https://www.autismspeaks.org/asperger-syndrome

  • CheapandUsed on 03/02/2025 - 10:18
    +11

    I am sure almost every corporate has a variation of this for their email signatures (or a default assumption).
    "I work flexibly. Unless it suits you, I don't expect you to read or respond to my email outside of your normal work hours."

    I would suspect there is a problem at this school they are trying to force a work-around for.. like forcing teachers to use their personal phones/devices for work reasons.

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:26
      +7

      I agree with this - I see those signatures all the time, something along the lines of "my working days/hours are X, Y Z". But not "please don't email me outside of "X, Y, Z".

      Probably trying to implement a policy of good work life balance but in a misguided way.

      • fantombloo on 03/02/2025 - 10:36
        +6

        They probably want to eliminate annoying notifications for those that are not savvy enough to do that themselves on their devices.

        Also, some people can't help themselves, might look at their phone later at night and see an issue, then have a restless night thinking about tomorrow's problem.

        • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:40
          +1

          Thank you… no issue with their intent, just with their implementation.

        • airzone on 03/02/2025 - 18:08

          I have quiet hours defined on my workplaces email policy configuration. Basically business hours -/+ 2 hours. A user needs to intentionally override the quiet hours configuration on a day by day basis.

  • coffeeinmyveins on 03/02/2025 - 10:26
    +26

    she was received a stern reply in the email to the same effect as above.

    a reply that should have just been met with "I had no assumption that you would reply over the weekend. Your inability to manage notifications on your phone are not my problem"

    It sounds like they're trying to prevent teachers from being "pinged" outside of office hours when the solution is simple. They need to teach them how to manage notifications.

    It's a bit silly really.

    Staff may choose to respond to your emails outside of their work hours, but you should not expect them to do so.

    And you should be able to send them an email, but not expect a reply. This reeks of them not knowing basic computer usage.

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:38
      +1

      Good suggestions, thank you.

    • CaptainJack on 03/02/2025 - 10:59
      +7

      The last part is the funny bit. Shouldn't the teachers also be forced to use schedule send when contacting parents outside of working hours.

      • Benoffie on 03/02/2025 - 11:57
        +2

        There doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement that teachers contacting parents outside of work hours means their own time or unpaid overtime 🤔

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 10:44
      +3

      Where's the option to schedule my ozbargain email notifications to arrive during my work hours only??? /s

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2025 - 10:44
    +6

    Maybe stops the feedback loop of

    A sends email at 3am

    B sees at 330 when they got up to pee, and goes bro… I will reply you in work hours

    A at 8:59am: WHERE IS MY REPLY DID YOU NOT SEE???? I WILL TAKE THIS TO THE SCHOOL BOARD AND OR ALL THE WAY TO THE PRIME MINISTER!!!

    • Benoffie on 03/02/2025 - 11:55
      +6

      Unfortunately this happens a lot.

      Even if someone emails during the day, the expectation of reply is either instant or within hours.

      It then just escalates, and teachers are then forced to waste time on more emails or calls.

      99% of enquiries are either resolvable by front office or through appropriate parent teacher interview procedures.

      • jacross on 04/02/2025 - 11:37

        That problem is resolvable by the two business days reply timeframe part of the missive.

  • mapax on 03/02/2025 - 10:50
    -1

    I’d guess one of, if not a number of the teachers can’t figure out how to set Focus, or the android equivalent, on their phone.

  • Downvoter on 03/02/2025 - 10:57

    Send whenever you want. But zero expectations of a reply outside of business hours.

  • CodeXD on 03/02/2025 - 11:00
    +12

    I expected better from macrob honestly

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 11:04
      +2

      Haha, good sleuthing!

    • You Were Warned on 03/02/2025 - 18:15

      Would be funny if it wasn't so serious

      https://sites.google.com/macrob.vic.edu.au/family-portal/ict…

      Have these 2 fine gentlemen been approached re: the obvious technical solutions to address this issue?

      Creating the script(s) in Google Apps and/or Exchange Admin to handle this is not rocket science

      • ChickenTalon on 04/02/2025 - 20:27

        I’d like to think that each school isn’t responsible for their own email config and admin. What a nightmare. Wouldn’t this be an education department run system for all vic govt schools?

  • pegaxs on 03/02/2025 - 11:09
    +18

    Lol… School needs to grow up. It's a school, not a underground nuclear bomb making facility on high alert…

    I would send my email whenever I want. Everyone has a legal right to "disconnect" from work, so, if I send it at 12:03am, I am not expecting an answer then, and they can open the email at their leisure when they get to work at 8:20am.

    What they should have said is; "Emails will only be OPENED and read during the hours of 8:20am to 4:20pm Any correspondence outside these times will not be opened until the next available allotted times."

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2025 - 12:21
      +7

      That’s how it does work.. in most places with normal people - but some parents I’ve found even though my kid has only just started prep for a week are absolutely freaking fruit loops and entitled mf’s.

      • pegaxs on 03/02/2025 - 15:26
        +6

        They have to realise that, even with these nut jobs out there, that opening an email is on the onus of the receiver. If you don't want to deal with emails until 8:20am… don't (fropanity) open them at 11:48pm the night before.

        Same with phone calls… you dont tell people "only call be between X and Y" and then leave your phone switched on… you just say "I am ONLY available between X and Y, outside those times, you will have to leave a message" and turn your phone off/silent.

        This policy just stink of some Office Jan having a Karen moment with the amount of emails she has when she arrives at 8:19am to start work and doesnt want to sit down every morning to 79 emails sent from 4:20pm till 8:20am…

        • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2025 - 15:41
          +1

          I like to self sabotage myself in all aspects of life I always say to myself I will not open that bloody email between 430pm and 7:55am -But then that notification at 330am will just be burning into my soul as I swap between ozbargain web page, instagram, and reddit.

          ‘Urgent, issue!! Open asap’’ or something else equally stupid in subject line…

          Do I want to worry now with full detail, or worry about worrying tomorrow at 7:55am hmmm

          • pegaxs on 03/02/2025 - 16:32
            +5

            @Jimothy Wongingtons: Oh, you see, I'm the opposite, I derive pleasure from ignoring emails, SMS/messages and phone calls, more so if I know it has come from work.

            People will often post the question; "What is better than sex?" and I will invariably always reply with "ignoring work attempts at communications outside of the hours I am paid for." Nothing makes me moan harder than my boss asking me "why didn't you pick up on Saturday when I called??" and I just say "Oh, sorry, I was out."… It's like edging for me… the longer I leave something unattended out of work time, the better it gets.

            I have two phones here. Work related phone and a personal phone. Personal phone is on all the time and this number is only available to friends and family. My work related phone (the number I give out to employers) it turned on when I leave the house in the morning and turned off when I walk out the door in the afternoon.

            That being said, my boss is pretty good like that though and the place would literally have to be burning down before they would even attempt to call me.

        • bamzero on 04/02/2025 - 14:39
          +1

          So everyone schedules their email for 8:20AM and Jan gets 79 emails at once…

    • Daabido on 03/02/2025 - 22:31
      +1

      It's a school, not a underground nuclear bomb making facility on high alert…

      It feels like it sometimes, but it is a very silly policy. I have two distinct logins - one for work and one for not work. And I know how to use focus to block email from bothering me. My DP can call me and it will get through, but it would have to be something pretty serious for that to happen. Any normal school has a within two days, not out of hours email policy, and backs the teacher up.

  • Ughhh on 03/02/2025 - 11:24
    +8

    The pro of emails is that it can be sent and opened at any time after, unlike phone calls. Since when is it expected to be responded immediately, particular during out of hours

    • coffeeinmyveins on 03/02/2025 - 11:26

      The con of people that don't know how to use technology is that they'll get the email notification on their mobile phone and feel compelled to reply.

      • djsweet on 03/02/2025 - 11:44
        +5

        That’s their problem though, not the responsibility of the sender.

  • SBOB on 03/02/2025 - 11:30
    +3

    Ridiculous 'rule'
    Email, as a protocol, does not guaranteed time-based delivery
    You could send it during business hours with no guarantee that some relay issue doesn't see it arrive in their inbox till after business hours anyway.

  • mboy on 03/02/2025 - 11:34
    +3

    It's a clunky solution. Emails are like traditional mail in that messages sit in your mailbox until they're retrieved. It seems stupid imo to put the onus on the sender about when to send it, rather than on the recipient about when to retrieve it.

    • If they've got their work email setup on their personal devices, then a) they shouldn't, or b) they should just turn off notifications.
    • And if they're using their work laptops for personal use during the weekend, then they should close their mail client at the end of the week and re-open it on Monday. Very simple.
    • freefall101 on 03/02/2025 - 17:41
      +1

      This, I had a problem of always answering emails (I kept telling myself I was getting ahead on tomorrow's work), so I only get notifications during certain hours, problem solved.

      Microsoft has admin settings to set policies on "quiet time" through Intune, they could just fix it that way.

  • shaybisc on 03/02/2025 - 11:38
    -6

    Or, emails should not be sent to teachers.

    • DiscountForThee on 03/02/2025 - 19:16
      +2

      Yeah, we should just take the day off work in order to talk to them in person

      • Mechz on 03/02/2025 - 19:33
        -3

        Make a phone call.

        • DiscountForThee on 03/02/2025 - 21:10
          +1

          Call them at 5:30pm?

        • jebdra on 05/02/2025 - 14:18
          +1

          Phone calls are much more disruptive than emails

      • BobLim on 03/02/2025 - 20:58

        Ask the office to schedule a 5-10 minute phone call

      • shaybisc on 04/02/2025 - 13:08
        -2

        That's what parent/teacher night is for. Once a year you talk to teachers. That is quite sufficient in nearly all cases.

  • djsweet on 03/02/2025 - 11:43

    lol schools must be the only business with the balls to tell their customers only to email them during business hours.

    • Assburg on 04/02/2025 - 08:12
      +1

      If you think everything should be run like a business you're part of the problem.

    • cuteseal on 03/02/2025 - 12:45
      +8

      Not sure if that is a serious question or not but some examples:
      * clarification of a question on an assessment task
      * clarification or missing information on slides provided by teacher
      * request for extension for work

      High school students work on homework and assessment tasks outside of school hours and it’s only natural that if they encounter any unknowns, they should be able to reach out for help when it’s fresh in their minds, instead of waiting until the next period that they can see their teacher in class, which could be a few days away.

      • Assburg on 04/02/2025 - 08:15
        +2

        When I run into an issue at work, I add it to my list of issues then work on something else.

        If I haven't self-resolved all my issues as they've built up and I've got 2 or 3, I schedule some time with my boss to chat about them all at once.

        Why is a high school student more demanding of a public school teacher's time than I am of my boss? Maybe they're doing the assignment last minute? Oops, live and learn I guess. Not everyone makes it.

        • DiscountForThee on 04/02/2025 - 13:24
          +4

          more demanding of a public school teacher's time than I am of my boss

          Can you point to the part where they're demanding the teacher's time? An email in an inbox is on an immediate demand for time

        • PeelThis on 05/02/2025 - 10:54
          +1

          I think you're conflating a few things here.
          That is just your style on how you manage issues at work, often I'll get on top of issues right away and either CC my manager or forward an email but I don't expect or demand their time on it.
          I rarely schedule calls with my manager unless it needs to really be hashed out as I personally find emails/chat are easy enough and they can respond when they are ready.

          Nobody is demanding the teachers time anymore than you are demanding your bosses time, it's just an email to ask some follow up questions.
          IMO completely valid and if anything shows that the student and parents care about trying to resolve the issue early rather than bringing it up last minute in class or waiting until parent teacher interviews.

      • boomramada on 04/02/2025 - 15:01

        There is no app to communicate with the teacher?

        Parents shouldn't have teachers' phone numbers/email, perhaps the school's generic email. For everything else, they should use the app/LMS.

        • cuteseal on 04/02/2025 - 15:16
          +2

          The teachers communicate with students via multiple avenues of communication - MS Teams, email, LMS.

          To me it's not an issue of whether email is an acceptable form of communication or not - it clearly is. Just that they expect everyone to conform to their skewed rules around email use, which is contrary to how the rest of world uses email.

          • boomramada on 04/02/2025 - 15:44

            @cuteseal: Just as a few mentioned, schools should ditch email on communicating unless generic email to the main office. Both private and public schools in SA do that. School should think it better!

            Based on those valid points you raised, what the school is trying to say, is that don't ask for those clarifications or extensions over the email at 2 am, they should re-word it better and say no more direct email. LOL

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join