[SammyTraveller]

Because my schedule is very unstructured due to work, I tend to email at almost all times of the day, including the early morning hours when most people should be sleeping.

Then, at 5 in the morning, someone saw me compose an email on my Blackberry, and warned me not to send it out. I asked, "Why?" She said it's because more and more people are receiving emails on their Blackberries and other smartphones and early-morning emails will wake them up from their sleep, and they are becoming more annoyed about being awakened by unimportant emails that are not emergencies. It would reflect badly on me if I keep sending emails in the wee hours.

I was very surprised to hear that, because I would think that people would just turn off their PDA's or at least enable them to be "phone only" where phone calls are the only ones that audible or vibrate, while emails are on quiet mode.

The tech-savvy will know how to do this, but most people won't know how to set it up (and most won't have the patience or won't care).

Maybe because I work too hard or don't listen to people, but I just hadn't heard of this issue before. Because of the increasing use of Blackberries and other smartphones, is there a new form of etiquette about when to send emails? Do I no longer send emails to people during early mornings in their time zones? I searched on crackberry and also googled on the Internet for any issues on this topic, but nothing came up, so I imagine it's something that could be a bigger issue going forward.

Thought I'd ask.

[slalom]

The first time someone complains to you about an early morning email, you should tell them about how to use "profiles" and "bed side mode" so their sleep isn't interrupted!

I find that most of the SPAM comes through in the early morning hours!

[thebeags]

That is what the bed side mode settings are for. If people complain about getting emails too early or too late, tell them to turn their phone off.

I always thinks its funny to see when people are sending out their emails. 11pm, 2am, 5am are pretty standard for work for me.

When you are dealing with about 4 different time zones, its hard to tell people what time they can and cant send emails.

[godofdeath]

this is why i have mine on autoshutdown until i wake up which is at 7

[sv123]

I couldn't agree more. If you don't want to be bothered/woken up, just shut off your phone. No need to be tech savvy for that. But yes, a little reading on how to setup profiles may also do the trick.

[SammyTraveller]

thanks for the replies.

more and more people are dropping landlines in favor of mobiles. so unless they know how to fiddle with the settings (and by that I mean any mobile device -- BB, iPhone, etc.), they will usually want to leave the phone on for that midnight emergency call from Mom or the wife.

interesting stuff. some iPhone users say there's no bedside mode so I would hope that Apple has that version in the future. and same for other non-BB phones.

[anon(1789171)]

I keep my BB on at all times. I just set the profile for phone only when I go to bed. Anyone that needs to get ahold of me with something *that* important, will have my phone number, otherwise, it can wait.

[vndlewis]

So, what happans who don't work 1st shift? They can only send emails when they are sleeping? Crazy!

I put my BB on phone only. Maybe you should teach that person how to do it. Tell her you are asleep from 9-5 and she can't send you emails between those hours.

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[iamtim]

Yeah... if you need to send an e-mail at 5am, do it. If the recipients don't want to be woken up at 5am to read said e-mail, they have options at their disposal to make sure that doesn't happen.

Let them manage their own use, you manage your own use.

[_StephenBB81]

That person who said that to you doesn't know how to use there phone.

with a BB a simple "phone only" keeps them ready for Emergency calls, but turns off the e-mail notification. if they can't figure that out and get mad, I'd tell them off. don't sleep with your phone if you can't take 24 hour e-mails, because that is the nature of e-mail you can send it when it is convenient for you. not wait till someone is ready to receive it

[mciriello]

I work in a role where I am supporting multinational clients and most of my work is overseas, so I get many emails in the middle of the night and send may to others during their nighttime hours. I think in the modern world of instant global communications, it's prefectly acceptable to assume that emails can come in any time and that people need to learn how to set up their phone properly

[bboy2143]

I put my phone on bedside mode so I don't get a ring alert for my emails, sms, pin, etc.. Also iput my profile to phone only. no one can disturb me in my sleep

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[DenverRalphy]

It's very acceptable to send emails in the wee hours of the morning. Most clients actually prefer it because they like having fresh info the moment they get in to work.

Anybody who relies on a handheld device for their email knows how to setup their notifiers to either be shut off, or at the very least not set a 150 decibel claxon as their tone.

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[Kellina]

ALL my messages are set to silent while I sleep, for exactly that reason. I don't think it's unreasonable for you to email on YOUR schedule.

Having said that there is an app somewhere on this site that allows to you schedule email delivery so that it's during "normal" working hours or something like that. I think the blip says something about not letting people know you are working on the weekends... Don't recall exactly.

I wouldn't worry about it myself though!

[ripnburn69]

Yes phone only mode is a must. If my phone went off all nite for evry spam and drunk txt I would go insane. Anyone that feels the same should be smart enough to make it not happen.

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[Trustno1]

I use my berry a lot for ROTC so I find myself sending and receiving emails at all hours of the night. In my case I would get yelled at if I didn't send emails at late/early hours haha

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[LuvMyBB]

I've never heard anyone complain about getting an e-mail in the wee hours. If they have a BB or other smart phone, and they are using e-mail on that device, then it is their responsibility to know how to use it so that it doesn't interfere with their sleep schedule.

[TearBear]

I have to back the OP (and apparently the rest of us) on this one. I usually wind up dealing with my e-mails in the middle of the night because of horrible insomnia. I have never had anyone mention anything about the timing of these e-mails because most of the people I am responding to or sending info to KNOW HOW TO USE THEIR PHONE!

[Radius]

I got flak once for sending a friend an SMS while she was asleep. I had to point out the whole mute option on her phone. It's not like I can tell when people are sleeping or not.

[OptiPrime]

If I put my phone on "phone only" mode can I get still get txts? Or should I create a profile that silences everything except phone & text?

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[vndlewis]

You can go to advanced in profiles and add text to phone only if you want.

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[SuddenlySara]

Phone only FTW. Screw those people you aren't smart enough to know that. Besides, if they are that dumb and don't know that emails and messages are coming in all through out the day and night they shouldn't even have a blackberry. I believe some people just keep it on loud so they can grype about how they got woke up at 3am bc of spam or emails. Some people like to torture themselves.

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[dabusdriver]

I set my phone to cut off at midnight and cut back on at 6 a.m. I've gotten email at 4 a.m (prior to setting my phone to cut off) and was upset, why? It was spam! If it was a real email I would not have minded

[Jermoe]

Mines auto off at midnight auto on at 6am aswell lol. If you want to talk to me while I'm asleep your gunna have to knock on my door so I can kick your @$$ if its not important

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[PumpkinMomma1]

All my spam gets to me from 12 pm - 6 am every day. Kohls is a big offender of this. I have my phone programmed for my phone to ring for certain contacts. Otherwise, I would never sleep!

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