{"id":600,"date":"2021-11-12T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=600"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:54:38","slug":"im-going-camping-part-3-of-5-keeping-work-in-its-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=600","title":{"rendered":"I’m going camping! Part 3 of 5 Keeping work in its place"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is the third article in a series about keeping work in its place<\/b>. As a reminder: emails are equivalent to messaging and I’m specifically referring to work situations involving remote teachers and students in educational contexts.<\/p>\n

My first story about overworking starts with a colleague; she was not a direct report of mine when this story started.  She was a brand new employee and loved the idea of remote full time work! I was tasked with talking with her about her planned schedule.  What was she going to be her work schedule?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going camping!\u201d she said excitedly.  She proceeded to tell me her planned schedule.<\/p>\n

She was going to work Monday through Friday but leave by noon on Fridays.  It was going to be great because she loved to go camping<\/i> with her husband. She was going to stop work at 12 p.m. (noon) on Friday, pack up the gear, and head out to the wilderness ahead of the Friday rush-hour traffic and be sitting at the campsite sipping a cold beer when the rest of the world was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, that does sound fun\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Then she\u2019s going to relax and probably hike on Saturdays, have another great big camping dinner. On Sunday morning, it will be a sleep-in and then slowly break camp for the afternoon drive back home, throw a load of laundry in the washing machine, and she\u2019ll boot up her work laptop that evening \u201cJust to clear some emails.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uh-oh. I could see it coming.<\/p>\n

I can do the math.  That was 6 days a week of work.  Well, 6 days of the week containing<\/i> work. I knew that would not be enough time off<\/b>.<\/p>\n

I tried to talk her out of the Sunday evening email check.  \u201cJust plan to spent an extra hour on Monday or Tuesday catching up…don\u2019t open that laptop on Sunday.\u201d I advised as her teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she said, \u201cI\u2019ll be fine, this will be great!\u201d<\/p>\n

She lasted 3 weeks.<\/p>\n

Then she burnt out.<\/p>\n

Tearfully, she told me she could not keep that schedule anymore.<\/p>\n

I asked her, \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, it ended up that she\u2019d work on Friday morning–all morning.  Then noon would come…and go…and she\u2019s still be working because emails she was sending out or work she was getting done was coming back in<\/i> to her in the form of counter-questions or just…more emails. It wouldn\u2019t stop! She felt bad for not helping the next email…and the next…and the next. 1 p.m. would come and go. Then 2 p.m. Then at 3 p.m. her husband who had managed to get out of work early for a Friday walked in the door to her home office and said \u201cWhy isn\u2019t the packing done?  We need to leave now or there will be traffic!\u201d and they wouldn\u2019t leave because it was hard for her to shut that laptop down. Finally, in a fit, she\u2019d slam the laptop lid shut and they\u2019d get the campsite late, after having been stuck in traffic, have an unhappy dinner and try to \u201crelax.\u201d <\/p>\n

So much for leaving work early.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By Sunday morning, she\u2019d start thinking about those emails again. They were at home, waiting for her on that laptop. Even though the morning was supposed to be leisurely, she\u2019d have that work in the back of her mind.  Gotta get home. Gotta get on the Internet. Gotta answer emails.<\/p>\n

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