3 things to do when your boss constantly sends late-night and weekend emails

3 things to do when your anfhrer constantly sends late-night and weekend emails3 things to do when your boss constantly sends late-night and weekend emailsYoure settling into bed following happy hour with your new coworkers when you get an email from your boss.Your anxiety levels immediately spike before you finish reading the subject line.Its only three weeks into your brand new job and youre already getting late-night communication from your supervisor, adding to the frequent waves of stress youve been feeling about the position.Heres what to do when your boss constantly sends emails well after hours.Figure out the best method of communicationLearn what the expectations are for this job - are you always expected to respond that night?Alison Green, author of the Ask a Manager blog,answers a readers question in Inc. on if they are supposed to reply to work emails from the new boss on weekends and how to avoid a potentially sticky situation.She writes that in some cases, you dont hav e to respond, but next illustrates that you should start a dialogue.Now, obviously, if your boss is saying things like let me know today or following up on Sunday to ask why you havent yet responded to the email he sent on Saturday, then its pretty clear that he does expect responses over the weekend, Green writes. But if this isnt the case, then I would either a) ignore the emails until youre back at work on Monday, or b) ask him- as in, Hey, Im assuming that its fine for me to wait to reply to emails sent over the weekend until Im back at work on Monday, unless its an emergency. Let me know if thats bedrngnis the case.Think about how this affects your productivityMaura Thomas, a speaker, trainer, author, and founder of RegainYourTime.com, writes to managers about how this type of communication hurts productivityin the Harvard Business Review.A frantic environment that includes answering emails at all hours doesnt make your staff more productive. It just makes them busy and distrac ted, she writes. You base your staff hiring decisions on their knowledge, experience, and unique talents, not how many tasks they can seemingly do at once, or how many emails they can answer in a day.Get your emails in checkThorin Klosowskianswers a readers question in Lifehacker about how to get more leisure time when the boss emails them nearly every weekend. The reader says the emails either make them anxious about Monday or take up a lot of time on weekends.One of Klosowskis tips is to forcefully cut yourself off.You can never guarantee your boss will respect your wishes and stop emailing you over the weekend, he writes. In that case, you should set up your inbox so you dont check them on evenings and weekends. Talk to your boss and come up with a system to differentiate between priority emails over the weekend and the emails that are just meant to help you prepare for your return on Monday morning. If your email account is properly prioritized youll be able to shut off those pe stering messages without worrying that youre missing a critical task.