I'm off sick today. High temp, feel lousy. I'm very rarely off work. But on the rare occasions that I am, you can guarantee that a certain 'pain-in-the..gluteus maximus' will send me emails telling me all the problems they're having at work.

The trouble is that I get stressed very easily. Probably my fault for checking my work emails from home, but my conscience makes me do it.

So then, Mr 'pain-in-the ####' starts his normal party trick. Silly, insignificant problems that he can deal with, but they really irritate me. He HAS to tell me all about it. I don't understand WHY! There's no reason at all to tell me when he knows I'm at home.

The trouble is that I work in a place where communication is dire but as soon as somebody thinks there may be a problem, they tend to send emails about it with half the planet in c.c. and little things then get blown out of proportion.

He's a nice guy so I don't want to hurt him, but I really think I will have to do something highly illegal and painful with a sharp oboe reed!

Here endeth the rant for today.

Steve

Hmmm, simple idea:

You will not be able to change this person, but you can change yourself.
Means: Don't read work e-mails if you are ill or on holiday (unless your contract says you have to be on stand-by, but that certainly doesn't apply to illness anyway).

Probably not what you would like to hear

In all seriousness: I sympathise, because I used to be exactly the same until I had a major meltdown because I always took on too much and wanted to do everything right, no matter how I actually felt. It has to do with a certain kind of control-freakery in my case, because by doing things I actually shouldn't when off work, I used to get the the idea that I was still in control - all down to not being able to relax and taking myself too seriously (both of which were down to major confidence issues btw).
I also used to tell myself that I would probably get more stressed when I didn't try to stay in control - in fact, the extreme opposite was the case though.

My meltdown was a real eye-opener to me, and I've changed a lot of things since then. Ideally, I would have changed them before getting a health-related warning though ...

Just let e-mails bounce - ideally don't read them, and if you absolutely have to, at least don't reply. They will get along without you for a few days ....

Can't comment on your rant, but can I just say how pleased I am to see you post! Earlier today I was looking at the New Posts and saw the Distance Learning thread with your name as the OP, except that it looked as if you'd deregistered, and I thought Oh no, not another one, and stevensfo is so *sensible* Then I realised that you'd actually started the thread years ago, before the Great Crash when everybody disappeared into a black hole, and the thread had just been revived. Nice to see you're still around

(but obviously sorry you're off sick )

...and I had a meltdown some years back that was preceded by somebody ringing me on work issues twice during my summer holiday. If you are at home either on holiday or sick leave you are entitled to be left in peace unless you are the prime minister or a company executive or something. I agree with others - don't read the emails and certainly don't answer them.

Get well soon.

Poor reed! No reed deserves to be treated that way!

...



I hope you get better soon And that your colleague somehow learns his lesson, though preferably without abusing a perfectly innocent oboe reed...

Mezzo that's ringing a lot of bells!!! You talk a lot of sense!

I also read e-mails when I'm away - or at least I do if I feel it's reasonable to do so e.g. there's something important going on that I know I need to cover, or if I've taken a couple of days off but I'm mostly at home and I'd rather be disturbed for 10 minutes than have a mess to clean up when I get back.

But, I prioritise the e-mails, if it's something that fits into "why I'm checking my e-mails" then I deal with it. If it's not I don't think about it until I'm back in the office.

I certainly don't think I would look at emails when I was off sick. It's really important just to chill and get better. Life was a lot simpler in many ways when we didn't have all these means of communication.

Get well soon stevensfo

Some are born annoying
Some achieve annoyingness
Some have annoyingness thrust upon them

Mad Bill

Yes it's all your fault Don't read work emails, turn off the work mobile. Get well soon.

PS - Anyone who is given a Blackberry should lose it.

I think Mezzo1974's post is pretty comprehensive . has I've just had a week off with what was probably swine flu, and my protocol for handling any such annoying emails is to forward the message onto my boss with the sender CCed in, and ask for it to be passed onto someone else. As soon as said annoying person realises they're thereby annoying the boss, they seem to stop. Odd that, isn't it?

(I also have a mug which reads 'I'm busy now, can I ignore you later?', but I can't give that all the credit....)


The poisoned berry indeed, more insidious than even a company laptop....

You are lucky to be gifted with such an expressive face.

I must learn that look to avoid "drive-bys" at my desk at work!