{"id":935,"date":"2021-11-12T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=935"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:06:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:06:37","slug":"6-days-a-week-part-4-of-5-keeping-work-in-its-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=935","title":{"rendered":"6 Days A Week – Part 4 of 5 Keeping work in its place"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I wish this story had a happy ending. But it
\n doesn\u2019t. This was a direct report of mine that did spectacular work.
\nShe was a gem of an instructor; I’ll call her Gem for this story. She
\ngave me great feedback that I implemented with other hires. <\/p>\n

But I lost her. I lost her to burnout.<\/p>\n

Very
\n early on in the hiring process, I made sure that I emphasized that I
\nwas hiring for 5-days-a-week schedules. I would say specifically \u201c5
\ndays, not 6, not 7.\u201d  Sometimes I\u2019d meet a traditional faculty candidate
\n transitioning to online who would tell me that they provided their
\nmobile phone number to their students because —and they would always say this like they were a saint<\/i>—
\n that way they could help the student anytime. I didn\u2019t advance them in
\nthe hiring process. What they thought was excellent customer service
\nactually told me that they didn\u2019t have self control<\/u>. Further,
\nthey couldn\u2019t see themselves as part of team, relinquishing control to
\nothers, trusting others, and the environment that they were applying to
\nwas about to go so fast and so intense, that it would eat them up.<\/p>\n

(True
\n story: Once I sat in a focus group of new online faculty hires and they
\n reported how surprised they were with how much they felt tied to their laptops<\/b>. 
\n \u201cTied\u201d was the actual word they used.  The Vice President running that
\nfocus group knew I was sitting in the group.  He turned to me and asked
\n\u201cHave you ever felt tied to your laptop?\u201d \u201cNever\u201d I said a bit
\nbreathlessly because I was wondering what the new hires were doing so
\nwrong to be “tied.”  But that was because I knew how to keep work in its
\n place.)<\/p>\n

So this faculty member Gem was leaving a few clues
\naround.  First, I had hired her for a 5 days a week Monday – Friday
\nschedule (within those 5 days, we also asked faculty to work 10 hours that were \u201cstudent-facing\u201d<\/a>
\n which meant that they had to be hours where students could reasonably
\nmeet with the faculty member…this usually meant 2 evenings per week.
\nThe other 30 hours could be at more faculty convenient times.) I saw
\nemails from her to her others with time stamps of Saturday or Sunday. 
\nLater on, I became famous for my checking of time stamps…my direct
\nreports actually learned to use \u201cdelayed send\u201d if they didn\u2019t want to
\nget caught overworking.<\/p>\n

I asked her about those time stamps. \u201cWhy did you feel the need to answer So-And-So on Saturday?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I have my laptop open on the kitchen table. So I saw the email come in and I wanted to help her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Laptop on the kitchen table\u2019 told me that:<\/p>\n