Texting My Boss At Weird Hours

13 comments

1. Seems to me you aren’t doing anything wrong and you’re simply just communicating with your boss

2. Ask him during business hours directly if it bothers him

3. I used to hate it when people texted me in the middle of the night. I was self employed but that’s still no reason to send a text at midnight or 3am. I work in a school now and we have a cut off no emails after 6pm so that everyone can wind down. I’m not sure what the early cut off is though for the morning. I would ask him. Say you don’t want to disturb him but find it easier to do it, does he mind? If he says he would prefer you to message in working hours do that, maybe send an email instead so you can schedule the send for 8am?

4. I never understand posts like this that would be answered by just asking the person in question what they prefer.

   There is no standard text etiquette. What one person prefers, another will find obnoxious. Ask him, he will appreciate the consideration.

5. I’m a boss and I accept it. If it can wait until tomorrow I just won’t answer, if it’s someone telling me they’re sick I try to get back straight away (I remember how it felt having to wait until the morning to know if you were cool to not come in). We don’t get a break anyway, I have investors calling me at 10pm and when I go to bed I’m thinking about work. I’d rather hear from my own team than anyone else

6. Why not just schedule emails to send the following day at 8am?

7. I would update him via email, personally. I wouldn’t want my boss seeing work texts from me right as they woke up. That seems a bit too much like an invasion of their personal life. The exception would be updating them on work with a tight timeline, especially if you know they are not quick to see/reply to emails.

8. Can’t you just save the text as a note or something and send it the day later?

9. Just talk to your boss about it.

   I had to have that conversation with mine, but for the opposite reason. We can get jobs late at night, and I let him know I put him on my DnD exception list so he can call/text me to wake me up for a job whenever, and he doesn’t have to feel weird calling me.

   I like money, so now he calls me a lot more in my off hours, which let’s me get more work. He just felt awkward.

10. I keep all work communication during office hours unless there is a work emergency.

    Since it’s a start up and a smaller company it might be normal/okay, but we have meetings for things like that and progress updates.

11. Sounds like a non issue

    You update him as soon as you’re done (I don’t know that that’s necessary but it’s your choice) he responds when he’s ready. You (for some reason) can see that you messages aren’t bothering him. I see no reason to change this habit.

12. Whether your boss has their notifications off or not, you should choose your own boundaries/time limits to text within, and stick with them.

    For example, I normally never send a text to anyone after around 10pm (unless they have previously told me to text me literally whenever), and not before around 8am.

    I believe that it’s just common courtesy towards yourself and others. It shows that you make good decisions, respect the home-work balance, other people’s sleep, etc. I think it’s also just a good self control/boundary practice in general.

    Something you can do is write the text in the middle of night, or whenever your burst of energy was, and *don’t send it*. Hit send when you wake up/when an appropriate time rolls around.

13. Yeah I would ask. Some bosses might have no problem with it. Some bosses (me) might use text as emergencies only and prefer other channels for daily updates.