Slow work
Work is so hectic that we can’t work at work anymore. Work is so hectic that we actually have to leave work to get work done. And then, when the end of the day rolls around, work follows us home in emails, alerts, and text messages.
This is bananas. Always-available, always-on work culture hurts our ability to do meaningful, in-depth research and advocacy. More importantly, it makes it hard to live happy, peaceful lives outside of work.
Inspired by It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, we’re doing a few things that we hope will move us towards a calm workplace, one that prioritizes deep thinking and sustainability over putting out whatever fire lands in our inbox at 9am.
From now on, and in general:
- We won’t email after 5pm ET or on weekends. This applies internally and externally. To be clear, we may still work after-hours — we just won’t interrupt each other with work after that time.
- We will hold morning “library hours.” We’ll try to avoid calls or meetings before noon. While we may send emails before noon, we won’t expect answers until later.
- We will avoid unnecessary meetings. To protect people’s schedules, we’ll try to minimize the amount of time we spend in meetings by saving in-person discussions for meaty or difficult issues.
- We will avoid “ASAP.” We won’t sprint to answer emails. When folks come to us with artificial deadlines or crises that we did not create, we may not scramble to address those, either.
We’re adopting these policies after a month-long trial. It took us a bit to get the hang of the “Schedule send” button, but honestly, it’s been great — and has given us some small but real mental space.
We think that people should control technology, not the other way around. The same should be true of our work.
Alvaro Bedoya is the Founding Director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. You can follow him on twitter @alvarombedoya.
