A: The Disconnecting from Work policy is meant to reinforce respectful boundaries for contacting employees outside of working hours. While employees/supervisors are permitted to contact each other outside of working hours, particularly for emergencies when an individual is on call, the policy encourages everyone to be respectful of each other’s time away from work.

Before you send an after-hours email, consider whether the message can wait until regular hours.

If your team is working toward a deadline that requires additional work outside of regular hours, be clear with your team in advance about expectations, how long the requirement will last and how their extra time will be recorded. In such a scenario, be particularly mindful of when you are contacting employees and be sure to follow through on commitments to lieu time.

Be mindful of how employees interpret messages from you and what they may infer about your expectations. If you are sending a message at the end of the day on a Friday to clear something off your to-do list, your employees may interpret that as an expectation they respond over the weekend. If you don’t require a response before Monday, make that clear in your message.