I was having a conversation with one of my closest colleagues and work/life balance came up. Specifically, we talked about how there are a handful of coworkers who email off hours or on weekends. Although after hours work may be commended, it can also cause unnecessary stress. He followed up our conversation by sharing this additional perspective:

This is the gist of what I say to people. Truth be told, I think I gave this as a speech to a group of people and directly to some of the offenders, rather than an email, but here you go.

Let’s talk about email for a minute. Specifically emailing long after business hours.

I get it. You have a job to do. You’re like everyone else, you want to finish your day and have a clean plate so you can sleep at night. So it’s 7:30 at night and you want to fire off your comments, send out meeting makers, or tell people what the client didn’t like about the work.

You’re one person, your plate is clean at 7:30 PM. You can sleep. Go home, enjoy your dinner and your family.

What happens next is what’s important.

That email you sent just arrived in five other people’s inboxes. And it’s on their phones. And it’s reminding them that they have work to do — at 7:30 at night.

These people are exactly like you. They wanted clean plates when they left so they could enjoy their evening with their family or their friends.

But instead maybe they now have a criticism from a client that makes them upset. That moment screwed up their private time. And you know what else, they’re upset with you — because you’re the messenger delivering them work to do at night, whether you think so or not.

So you’ve cleaned your plate but filled up how many others?

Now we all know that these folks don’t have to check their email at night, but what if they don’t check? Will they be accused of not doing their jobs? That’s how people think.

There is a simple solution for all of this. If you need to clean your plate at night and get work off your desk, by all means do it. Get your email ready. Save it as a draft and send it first thing in the morning when everyone is receptive to getting email. Or set your email to auto-send in the morning so you don’t have to think about it.

But remember, you finishing your work at night shouldn’t mean notifying folks that their day isn’t over yet.

There will always be exceptions, and sometimes we have to reach people in off hours. But always ask yourself, “Does this message have to go through now? Or can it wait until the morning?” Nine times out of ten — it can wait.