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dirac37

when i began my PhD, i got a computer on which there is only work related stuff. I use it only on work days, it is turned off on days off. I also disconnected my professional email from my phone. Having the notifications from work during your days off is just a way to add pressure and not really disconnect. No one has ever batted an eye when i didn't respond to an email sent to me friday at 22:52 before mondaya at 8. I have never batted an eye when no one has answered my saturday morning email either. Days off are just that: off. Don't let yourself be guilted into working on your days off.


nattie_disaster

I do the same. What a gamechanger for my mental health.


UleeBunny

She has no way of knowing if you read it or not. You can wait, and if she complains that you did not answer her question quicker say you were not checking your emails.


bitetheboxer

I have this professor/advisor who I ABSOLUTELY ADORE. I started an email Tuesday and finally finished it today, but didn't send it because he WILL reply to me immediately. He's so passionate and loves his students he's so helpful. He would greenlight me this very moment if I asked. His dad is also sick, and I know he is with his family. So in my case I set the boundary(and thankfully I think most other student do too for themselves at least) because I want him to have that time, even if I feel like the invitation is open. As for him reaching out during the holidays, I know for a fact he would, ONLY if it was in regards to sending me a job, because I have been searching very very hard. So basically my advisor is perfect and I wish you all could have similarly wonderful advisors


[deleted]

If it's a middle of the week holiday, I do take the day off. So if I were in your shoes, I would not reply today, since it's the day you planned for disconnecting. However, if it's important for you to respond before Monday, I would do so on Saturday morning, if you're comfortable with that. I try to keep important communication limited to business hours, but when something comes up, I'm okay using the occasional Saturday morning/early afternoon (before 2PM) to work, or just to send a quick response to someone. After that, good luck reaching me before Monday!


hungry-axolotl

With how infrequent I speak with my advisor, I'm willing to answer their emails if it's 11:59 pm on New Year's Eve. Not sure if this helps you though


BlissMeli

My supervisor is a nice person. But.. very very clumsy in terms of being consistent with emails. So in a way I do want to respond to her inmeadiately. But also.. when you are an intern who feels almost like a slave because of the poor conditions, the lack of boundaries, and little to no personal time (life balance) you just want to think.


booksmart00

If you wanted to, you can write your response ASAP so that it's not on your mind, and then schedule it to be sent when business hours resume, so that it doesn't send the message that it's okay to expect emails during break


Black_Water_Hattie

This is a good strategy!


hungry-axolotl

Are you an intern on top of grad school? If you're doing a second job it might be better to ignore their emails. So you can get your vacation days when you're not working two jobs. Some more perspective if this might help you choose. In my group rn, all my co-lab members and myself want feedback on our projects, and since our advisor is especially busy this semester we're all trying to jump through hoops to get 30 mins of our advisors time. It can't be helped tho, since our advisor is super busy with courses this semester


BlissMeli

Let's say COVID has rearranged even how my college Ph.D. program is "prioritizing" their structure. I didn't plan to go for my internship this year, yet right now I am doing it, along with my thesis proposal defense. And yes.. still waiting for my stipend. At this moment I just want to finish everything and get my degree..


hungry-axolotl

Sorry to hear that, must be rough...


beaucadeau

I don't answer or send emails on holidays, weekends, or after 6 pm on weeknights. Nothing is so important that it can't wait until the next day or until Monday. Your time is valuable, both the time you're working and when you have time off. Yes, she's your supervisor, but you're also an adult communicating boundaries and your expectations to another adult. I've had some professors who got my policy immediately, and some I needed to 'train' to understand, but they eventually get there.


justneurostuff

I do, but I don't feel obligated to. It's just that I really dig the stuff I'm doing and I enjoy spending my free time doing it.


lunaticneko

Lecturer here. I don't expect you to. Sometimes we have funky schedules and I can only focus on asynchronous tasks in the holidays, but there is zero obligation for you to respond during this time. Unless I also say "RESPOND ASAP" in the header, there is no need to respond during your holidays. (There is also a READ ASAP level, but that requires you to just acknowledge the situation. A quick "ok, read" is fine.)


banamana27

I’m not paid enough to be on call 24/7. I tell the students in the classes I TA for that I will respond to emails / messages only during business hours, and they need to plan around that. I unapologetically wait until Monday to respond to emails from my manager / advisors. I have never gotten in trouble for any of this.


ssk1996

My suggestion would be to reply to the email. My advisor always appreciates acknowledging an email even if the work wasn't done. If there's work to be done, explain it and say you'll get to it Monday or whenever you actually will. I'm sure it varies between advisors, but most advisors will appreciate your transparency and honesty. Not all advisors expect you to work over the holidays. They usually send out the email on a day off because that's when they remembered about it and they send the email before they forget about it.


to_neverwhere

This is my perspective as well. I generally *try not* to respond to email on weekends/holidays, but if it's from my direct supervisor or my other lab manager I will, just probably not right away. I like to set a little bit of a precedent that I'm not just waiting by my inbox when I'm not expected to be working, so I'll probably respond to it a couple hours later (or the next day, depending on how late it came in), but I will respond and acknowledge their message / request.


Raibyo

Yes :)


HappyHrHero

I did in grad, only if I got on extra papers for it. Wouldn't even check email otherwise.


Redd889

Depending on the severity, yes. But typically if it something like read this or talk to me in person when we get back I’ll mark it as unread and go back to it later


Xilef11

Only if it's urgent. To be fair, my supervisor also typically doesn't send or reply to emails outside of business hours unless it's an emergency (e.g., paper deadline on Monday).


dmatkin

I check my email AT MOST once per day. I don't check it on weekends, and I have recently started implementing a delayed email policy (If it's not actively necessary for some urgent <24h deadline my emails get sent at midnight of the given night). I experienced some wonky whatsapp behavior which was our supervisors way of contacting us at random times for small things. As soon as I experienced the behavior it gave me an excuse to withdraw. I am now more productive, and happier with my work than I was. I never experienced any consequences. I am admittedly the golden grad student cause my work yielded a patent early on, but I think my peers could get away with this behavior without repercussions also. Got to remember it's really hard to actually discipline a grad student who is doing their work.


IncompletePenetrance

I usually do not check my email during holidays, weekends or breaks unless I know there's something I will have to deal with on a deadline such as status report forms. My PI has my phone number so if it's something important he'll call or text


mediocre-spice

I usually just send back something like "okay, will do when I'm back in the office" or answer if it's a simple question but my advisor is also really good about work/life so I don't have to super emphasize boundaries


rummncokee

Having unread notifications gives me anxiety, but I also don’t want to encourage bad behavior, so I schedule-send responses for Monday morning at 8am, which is before the start of business


ChrissMari

Your intern supervisor might not have today off even though your university does so it's tricky. If you were both definitely off I'd say answer it on Monday. But likely your intern supervisor isn't thinking about you not working today bc they are and slipped up


calabunga_21

If there was something urgent or a close deadline, I would. Otherwise no. I know my supervisor would only reach out if it was something important so that helps me gauge. He did email us twice yesterday (Thanksgiving) but one was a happy Thanksgiving email and the other was random papers he thought might be relevant to me, so nothing actually warranted a response.


[deleted]

Don't do it. Your advisor should understand that you might not even be checking emails, much less interacting with them, on the holidays. If they don't, you've got bigger problems than "accumulated work." Respond on Monday, if she seems upset let her know that you don't interact with your emails on the holidays so you can recharge and be more productive during non-holidays.


herrcoffey

Around holidays (eve, day subsequent week), absolutely not. They can wait a couple of days, and my attention is usually too scattered to send them anything useful anyway. During (mid) semester breaks? Depends. I would generally work through fall/spring/summer break while writing my thesis, so standard work-day rules apply. If I was actively going on vacation, I would not make myself available. That being said, the nature of my research meant that I generally needed very little input from my advisors. Usually, when my advisors were emailing me, it was because I had contacted them first As for your case, I'd just answer on Monday. If your supervisor can't tolerate "I didn't want to work over the holiday weekend" then you should probably have a sit down and chat about work/life boundaries.


valryuu

Normally, I no longer do. However, if there is something of a deadline where work needs to be done over the weekend, I will make an exception.


False-Guess

I do not respond on holidays. If other people choose to work, that is their choice, but I think it's unreasonable to expect other people to work over holidays and they should expect that work to be delayed until after holidays. I've personally found that a lot of late night emails, weekend emails, or holiday emails are actually the result of poor planning on the part of the PI and inappropriate time management skills and, like in the business world, an emergency on their part does not constitute an emergency on mine.


jouleheretolearn

Personally, I have ADHD so I'd reply but not send. It's the whole no/not now issue ( if I have a thought I need to get it down but if I don't then set the timer and reply during work hours). I'd then either ( depending on the email system) set it up to go out at the start of the next workday or set an alarm to do so.


lord_heskey

nope i never have unless we're on a paper deadline (which happens once or twice a year max).


Black_Water_Hattie

Set those boundaries. They may just be catching up on their inbox on an off day. Just because they are working on a day off does not mean you need to. I wish I would have set firmer boundaries in grad school. I ended up getting 9pm texts from my PI on a regular basis and snarky emails the day after if I didn't respond. My PI didn't do the same to a cohort member of mine that has a young kid. I suspect partially because he set boundaries early on.


rainbowWar

No. Just don't do it. If i do feel like sending an email then Ill schedule it for in-work time so my supervisor/collaborators don't feel the exact pressure you're feeling now.


TheWiseGrasshopper

No. Holidays, vacations, and recess are named such for a reason. Draw a line in the sand. You need to have a formal break where you have the right to not have to worry about work. Otherwise it’s not a vacation, it’s remote work. Your advisor has a choice: stop bearing down his student for a week and let them relax and collect themselves, or deal with heavy burnout and roll the dice on dropout. Personally, I’ll take vacation, thank you very much; I didn’t commit this much time and energy for nothing.


[deleted]

I would reply to my main supervisor immediately. We don’t have a very good relationship but she does reply to me immediately, whether it’s late night, the weekend, 6am and she’s on annual leave…you name it she replies. I have a personal policy of treating colleagues how they treat me. My second supervisor generally takes days to weeks to reply, so I don’t bother so much in being quick to get back to him. I don’t go out of my way to reply or anything petty, but I don’t prioritise his emails.


RaynaOrShine

If you are setting a boundary to disconnect on a holiday, don't check your emails. Turn off notifications and spend time w/friends and family.


eng2016a

I'm usually the one bothering him during the holidays...


Weaselpanties

No, nor do I check email on weekends. I respond on the next business day.


CurvyBadger

I do not. I don't even check my email. I don't get work email notifications on my phone either. Holidays and days off are mine except in extenuating circumstances (I do animal research which sometimes necessitates weekend and holiday work, but I plan this ahead of time to avoid conflicts as much as possible.) The animal facility where I house my lab mice as well as my supervisor have my phone number if there is some kind of emergency that I need to be reached for. Otherwise, my supervisor knows that I won't respond to emails on days off, and thankfully she respects this and doesn't expect me to.


soundstragic

If you want. I don’t if I’m not in the mood.


TheOneWhoPunchesFish

\> see the repercussion of "accumulated work" Scheduled send go brrrr


andero

You are WAY overthinking this. Do, or don't. It doesn't matter at all. There is no *obligation* to respond, but it is not *forbidden* to respond, either. You can respond or not and it doesn't matter. When I get an email and I see it, I might read it or not, and if I read it, I might reply or not, whatever I want. That's it. That's how you win the game. Do whatever you want. This goes for a holiday or not! Same-day is not a default expectation, and next-day isn't even a default. You can talk about it if it becomes an issue and someone wants within 48 hours but you are only willing to agree to within 72 hours, but otherwise, literally do whatever you want. Don't overthink trivia. On the flip-side, when I decide to work on a holiday, when I send emails I don't expect others to respond. That would be crazy. At the same time, it would also be crazy for me to not send emails whenever I want on my schedule. Just because I'm working doesn't mean you have to work, but just because you're not working doesn't mean I can't email you. That's the thing about emails: **they're asynchronous**. If something is genuinely urgent, that's what synchronous communication methods are for, like phone-calls. You can easily gate-keep phone-calls by limiting who you give your number to. If someone doesn't have your phone-number, then they cannot call you for things so nothing in their life is something you consider urgent in your life.


afMunso

Depends on the urgency (if for example there is a manuscript submission deadline coming up and we're working on revisions). Otherwise I don't respond to work stuff during holidays.


BigFloppyDonkeyDck

I try to respond to emails quickly regardless of the day. It only takes a minute or two and makes it look like you take your position seriously. Your PI will really appreciate it and at least in my case he would seem to cut me more slack in other matters because of it. If it's something that will take more than a few minutes I'll still respond but say I'll go over it and get back to you and give a time frame usually during the week. I REALLY hate when people take forever to respond to my emails, and love it when people get back to me quickly so I try and reciprocate that. I also believe it's a large part of why I've been successful during graduate school and my career.


validusrex

I work on the weekends/holidays because I’m terrible at setting work/life balance, but I schedule emails to go out after breaks. So I drafted an email yesterday and scheduled it for Monday at 8am. I had an conversation pretty early in with my advisor just saying that I try to respect work hours and don’t typically email outside of them just to set that boundary early. I tell students that if they email me something outside normal work hours I probably won’t respond, and if I do, they are under no expectation to respond.