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9-5 isn't optimal for many people, but as someone who does prefer a 9-5 (ideally a 10-6), it can be frustrating when you roll into the office, see an email sent

9-5 isn't optimal for many people, but as someone who does prefer a 9-5 (ideally a 10-6), it can be frustrating when you roll into the office, see an email sent from a colleague at 3am, and have to wait until 1pm or 2pm to ask any clarifying questions. Or on the flip side, when 6pm comes around and you're ready to leave, that same colleague is just settling into the most productive part of the day and wants to debug something with you. Worse still are the times when it's 10pm and you're getting ready for bed, only to find that your colleague has a few 'quick questions' over email. In my experience flexible work hours are okay when your work is silo-ed off from the rest of the team, or if you are diligent about making sure other people can pick up the ball once you're done. When either of those things are not true it just becomes a headache for everyone.

xt00 10y ago
Yea I've worked for a long time with people in asia (I'm in US), and basically I send emails to them around 4pm my time so that they get the email when they get in in the morning, then I expect to need to answer them up until around 9pm. So for me a 10:30am to 7pm schedule works pretty well. So yea, I think being part of a team means you need to figure out how to optimize your schedule for the team to be most successful, and for your life. I've worked with people who are kind of ridiculous.. they do "4-10s", and get into work at like 4am.. basically they work 4 days per week and are there essentially overlapping with people for like 2 hours. So its one of those kind of things where I'm like, who approved that arrangement??? so I guess flexible I mean as like, "you can get into work anytime between 7am and 10am, but expect to be here 9 hours and take a 1 hour lunch break..".. I feel like that is a pretty flexible for many people, and you could say "if you need to leave early to go get your kids on some random day or do something, just do it, but figure out how to make sure you are being productive.." so there is basically a rule that people need to follow, but also some level of flexibility.
grillvogel 10y ago
why would you check work email when you're about to go to bed?
- xt00 10y ago
  Yea I've stopped doing that more recently.. Good point.. ;)

xt00 10y ago

Yea I've worked for a long time with people in asia (I'm in US), and basically I send emails to them around 4pm my time so that they get the email when they get in in the morning, then I expect to need to answer them up until around 9pm. So for me a 10:30am to 7pm schedule works pretty well. So yea, I think being part of a team means you need to figure out how to optimize your schedule for the team to be most successful, and for your life. I've worked with people who are kind of ridiculous.. they do "4-10s", and get into work at like 4am.. basically they work 4 days per week and are there essentially overlapping with people for like 2 hours. So its one of those kind of things where I'm like, who approved that arrangement??? so I guess flexible I mean as like, "you can get into work anytime between 7am and 10am, but expect to be here 9 hours and take a 1 hour lunch break..".. I feel like that is a pretty flexible for many people, and you could say "if you need to leave early to go get your kids on some random day or do something, just do it, but figure out how to make sure you are being productive.." so there is basically a rule that people need to follow, but also some level of flexibility.

grillvogel 10y ago

why would you check work email when you're about to go to bed?

xt00 10y ago
Yea I've stopped doing that more recently.. Good point.. ;)