Tag: after-hours

My boss often pings me on Slack after 9 p.m., and I feel pressure to reply even though my hours are 9–5. It's a small team & so I don't want to come off as unhelpful or rigid. I'm not in an on-call role, but performance reviews mention responsiveness. How can I set expectations without burning bridges—maybe with a quick conversation and clearer status settings? If you have sample wording for an email or chat message, that would help. Also, any tips for handling true emergencies versus non-urgent asks would be great 🙂. Quick background: I've tried a couple things already but keep getting stuck.

My team has a habit of pinging in the group chat late at night. I don't want to seem unhelpful and but I also need to unplug. How do I set expectations without sounding rigid?

I manage a small team and my boss often texts me at night and on weekends about non-urgent tasks. We're remote across time zones, so I get that schedules vary, but it's starting to blur my off-hours. I can't change jobs right now and I don't want to damage the relationship. What's a professional way to set expectations, maybe via a single conversation and some phone settings? Specific phrasing that's firm but not confrontational would help. Any tips that work even when the culture is 'always on'? Context: I'm hoping for practical tips or "this worked for me" style answers.