6 Days A Week – Part 4 of 5 Keeping work in its place

This is the fourth article in a series about keeping work in its place.
As a reminder: emails are equivalent to messaging and I’m specifically
referring to work situations involving remote teachers and students in
educational contexts.

I wish this story had a happy ending. But it
doesn’t. This was a direct report of mine that did spectacular work.
She was a gem of an instructor; I’ll call her Gem for this story. She
gave me great feedback that I implemented with other hires.

But I lost her. I lost her to burnout.

Very
early on in the hiring process, I made sure that I emphasized that I
was hiring for 5-days-a-week schedules. I would say specifically “5
days, not 6, not 7.”  Sometimes I’d meet a traditional faculty candidate
transitioning to online who would tell me that they provided their
mobile phone number to their students because —and they would always say this like they were a saint—
that way they could help the student anytime. I didn’t advance them in
the hiring process. What they thought was excellent customer service
actually told me that they didn’t have self control. Further,
they couldn’t see themselves as part of team, relinquishing control to
others, trusting others, and the environment that they were applying to
was about to go so fast and so intense, that it would eat them up.

(True
story: Once I sat in a focus group of new online faculty hires and they
reported how surprised they were with how much they felt tied to their laptops. 
“Tied” was the actual word they used.  The Vice President running that
focus group knew I was sitting in the group.  He turned to me and asked
“Have you ever felt tied to your laptop?” “Never” I said a bit
breathlessly because I was wondering what the new hires were doing so
wrong to be “tied.”  But that was because I knew how to keep work in its
place.)

So this faculty member Gem was leaving a few clues
around.  First, I had hired her for a 5 days a week Monday – Friday
schedule (within those 5 days, we also asked faculty to work 10 hours that were “student-facing”
which meant that they had to be hours where students could reasonably
meet with the faculty member…this usually meant 2 evenings per week.
The other 30 hours could be at more faculty convenient times.) I saw
emails from her to her others with time stamps of Saturday or Sunday. 
Later on, I became famous for my checking of time stamps…my direct
reports actually learned to use “delayed send” if they didn’t want to
get caught overworking.

I asked her about those time stamps. “Why did you feel the need to answer So-And-So on Saturday?”

“Oh, I have my laptop open on the kitchen table. So I saw the email come in and I wanted to help her.”

‘Laptop on the kitchen table’ told me that:

• She
  wasn’t always working from a space that encouraged professional
  behavior.  We firmly asked employees to provide “dedicated home office
  space” that reflected a professional atmosphere with our students.
  #NoBedsInTheBackgroundPlease Even though she obviously was not on
  camera to answer an email, she didn’t separate work from home.
• Working
  from a non-ergonomically planned space could bring on problems like
  carpal tunnel syndrome or back pain. When you don’t work at a desk, I
  worry about a compensation claim.

I was already worried.

“I’d
prefer if you don’t check email when you are not at work. While I
appreciate your dedication to our students, this probably could have
waited.”

A few more months went by. I see the timestamp problem
again and it is discussed around the team.  I had another private
conversation with her.

“I need you to work when you are supposed to be working. I need you to not work when you are not supposed to be working.
It’s very important that you get rest and get away from work because
then, when you come back to work, you are happier, more productive, and
can help more students.”

Her response– a peel of laughter–the ‘mad scientist’ kind.  She said:

“You don’t understand! 

I like helping students!”

Uh-oh. I was up against the “what could ever be wrong with helping a student?” argument.  It was the #EducationIsAnInsatiableMonster rearing its head.

I
said “I’m very serious. When you work on your days off, I get very
concerned. The next stop on this train is burnout. At burnout, you help no students.”

She
ignored me and kept going. I started trying to figure out how to word
this problem for her written performance review. I’d given her two
verbal warnings so it was time to up my rhetoric.

It ends up, I didn’t have to.

She called me one day.  She said “I’m resigning.”

Stunned, I said “Why?”

She answered, “Because I want to spend more time with my daughters.”

I screamed into the phone, “That’s funny, because I wanted you to spend more time with your daughters too.  Only, I wanted to PAY you to do that. And I wanted you to be able to tell your daughters that Mommy is a Full Professor. Now you won’t!”

No, I didn’t scream that into the phone.

I
accepted her resignation and wished her well. But ever since that day,
I’ve known…she never learned the lesson I was trying to teach. She
burned herself out. She’ll do it to herself again in other jobs.

If you like my article series, you might want to check this out: You are not your job: Writer Arthur Brooks on why careers shouldn’t dictate your identity

This was the article that started this series: Defending a Teacher’s Right To Disconnect.

Article 1 I am the woman who did not check her email and lived.

Article 2: You replied too quickly!

Article 3: I’m going camping!

Article 5 will be: Measuring Remote Team Productivity or What Happens When It All Goes Wrong

#KeepWorkInItsPlace
#RemoteWork #TimeManagement #SelfControl
#EducationIsAnInsatiableMonster #Working6DaysAWeek #Leadership #Success
#Failure #Management #Email #Burnout