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0 pointscoldpie12d ago0 comments

100%, and it extends beyond vacations, too. Unless you have a formal on-call arrangement, then any time you spend doing work stuff outside of your work hours is time you are choosing to donate to your company. It's fine if you want to do that, but you don't have to. I work 8-4 every day. I am not contactable outside that window and definitely not contactable on my days off. I haven't worked at a ton of different places, but at the places & teams I have worked with, I've never had anyone object to this policy.

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ryandrake12d ago· 3 in thread

In the USA at least, I've found that this kind of "not working means not available" arrangement is easier or harder based on your seniority and the kind of company you work for. I am able to hold the line on this now, 25 years into my career, but it took a long time to get to this point, and I never would have been able to swing it when I was a junior programmer, and when I was working in a hyper-work-obsessed startup.

Back in the early 2000s when I was Junior Engineer Number 32204, and not particularly valuable to my medium sized company in a competitive industry, I could never have gotten away with "Oh, by the way, boss, I am totally unreachable nights and weekends, and don't bring work with me on vacation." But, now, quite a bit more senior in my career and working in a "comfortable" big tech role, it's possible.

ethagnawl12d ago

> Back in the early 2000s when I was Junior Engineer ...

I tried something like this over July 4th weekend last time I was full-time anywhere (startup; 2010) and it very quickly devolved into an i-quit-you-cant-quit-i-fired-you situation and the company withholding my final paycheck. (New York State employment law does not mess around and I was eventually paid after dragging the deadbeat through Small Claims.)

It traumatized me and is in large part why I've been a freelancer / running my own consultancy ever since. My self-employed situation is better in some way and worse in others but I can't even imagine what it's like to not have my back against the wall 24/7/365. :(

lokar12d ago

This was mostly my experience. Once I was very Sr and reporting to the VP my solution was people could get in touch via the VP, his admin or my admin. Worked well (there were some things I really did need to be called for).

But not a general solution. But with a good manager can work more broadly. And I did see a couple managers do something similar for their teams, making it clear that if you need emergency attention contact the oncall, if for some reason that won’t do call the manager. This friction alone deals with most issues.

coldpieOP12d ago

It's a small number of data points, but neither of my two early-career jobs had any expectations like that. I've never explicitly said "I'm not reachable," I just have never worked or responded to work communications outside of work hours, and no one has ever questioned me on it.

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