How did you handle new expectations for checking and responding to your work e-mail outside of normal business hours?

My rules apply primarily for contractor/consulting people - not necessarily for employees, but here they are: You send me an email and I read it? That's 15 minutes of billable or trackable time. You send me an email and I actually respond? Thats either 30 or 60 minutes of billable/trackable time. Which is fine, now that I am back to billing hourly (at decent rate*). It sucked a bit when I was on-call, 24/7 365 - however, I could take time off during regular daytime hours to offset - via a bankable time-tracking system. * (For those of you contracting hourly, ensure you have a billing/support rate structure for evenings/weekends that reflects the work/life balance you expect to have... I normally charge an addition 30% for work that occurs outside of core business hours) What is the old rule-of-thumb about setting your rates? If 3 of 5 of your current clients are not complaining about your rate, then it simply isn't high enough.

I am a lawyer, and generally expected to be available 24/7. I find that being connected by Blackberry is one of the worst things about my job. It's one thing if the emergency emails you might receive will just require you to delegate work, or do some quick remote server reboot, drop a quick response email, or whatever. But do not underestimate the enervating effect of perpetually having the sword of Damocles hanging over your head. I have not fully relaxed in 8 years. It is truly, truly, horrible if at any moment you could be called into the office for the rest of the day/night/weekend/holiday. I know you say you think you're being compensated for making yourself so available, but depending on what level of activity they're seeking, I can tell you they're not paying you enough.

Did you get a raise commensurate with being on call 24/7? Effectively they appear to be saying you are no longer allowed to leave your phone at home.

I try REALLY hard to only respond to emails that need to be responded to outside work hours. And I try really hard to only open emails that look like they can't wait. I also don't check after a certain hour that is close to bedtime (8:30) unless I know a crisis is in progress or likely. And I try to nip expectations in the bud and keep them reasonable (I.e. I won't check emails after 8:30.)

I agree about making clear rules about times that you will answer and what constitutes 'must respond now' versus 'can deal with on Monday'. Otherwise you end up like me in my last job, getting moronic 'ideas about system improvements' from drunks at 11:30 on Saturday night that you're expected to respond to within fifteen minutes. There will be at least a couple of people who will ignore those rules - depending on if they're politically/positionally important in your organization will determine how you deal with them. You'll eventually figure out who is who. It's really not that terrible. SoulonIce is right, there is a rhythm to it. But I would recommend that you be aggressive but respectful about setting limits right up front, because you'll be stuck with what you decide pretty much forever.

This is the new reality. Since I bill on e-mails, I think about the money. You can too.

Here's a strategy from academia: my adviser asks that if you are contacting her using email to include in your subject heading your expectations. Like: PLEASE REPLY: Letter of recommendation needed by 6/2/12 URGENT: Emergency Staff Meeting FYI: Comprehensive exam reading schedule My impression is that she only looks at "Urgent" when on vacation, and Urgent/Please Reply on weekends/"family time" hours.

Lawyer here, so my client demands are slightly different than senior IT. My current job has vastly different expectations than my previous law firm job. Now, on the weekends, I make it a point to check my email in the evening. During periods in which others are communicating with me on a crisis-mode project, I let them know when I will be able to get back to them, and, for the most part, they are respectful of that. Even when I was working in Biglaw, I was fortunate enough to have colleagues who were (mostly) respectful of the notion that I wouldn't be billing 48 hours on the weekend. So, when I was working on a brief or coordinating stuff during the weekend, it was really a matter of letting people know when I would be able to respond, if/when I wasn't able to immediately. So, for instance, I see an email from my boss at 10am on Sunday, I respond when I see it, "Got it, will be back home and online at 3pm and will respond then." This was totally ok in most circumstances, but not if all hell's breaking loose. Likewise, for people with kids, very common on weekday evenings to see something like, "I will call you at 10pm when I'm done with the kids", etc. In most sane circumstances bosses shouldn't have a problem with this; crisis mode, servers-on-fire stuff is always a possibility, but if you are always in crisis mode, that's when you start getting concerned.

When I did this, I was usually sporadic and flaky, for example checking it once at some point after I got home (which might be, say, 5:30 or might be 10:30 after I did the gym, ate, farted around, etc.), once on Saturday at 10am and once on Sunday at 2pm, that's it. I'd also only answer the things that actually needed an answer. That way I was fulfilling the letter of the law and looking relatively engaged but not devoting much time to it and not building the habit/expectation that I was always available and going to answer in a few minutes.