When is it too late to email someone?

When is it too late to email someone? Years ago when I was a child, it was considered de rigeur to telephone someone (other than a close family member ) on a Sunday or during the week after 9pm (emails were not in widespread use in those days).

But over time, such rules have slipped away and I wonder whether for the better.

It is almost impossible for us these days to be detached from our telephones, ipads or laptops. We are simply lost without them. Panic stricken when we mislay such a device. Almost as if our world might come crumbling down. They are a source of significance apparently to every aspect of our lives. Part of this is positive. We can ‘connect’ with friends and family; pay bills; take photos; watch movies; reply to communications and oh yes, make calls, 

But, and this is indeed a big but - part of this is negative both to our mental wellbeing and sustainability.

People take these devices to the toilet, to browse, whilst they are, well you know where (just make sure you wash everything properly). Scared that whilst they are away from such a device (not the toilet) they may miss an important message - an email, a text, a Piers Morgan tweet or the latest photo of their facebook friend’s child who they have never actually met (indeed can they actually remember the ‘friend’?). 

I recall a paralegal with a large American firm of solicitors in London who on her honeymoon would search the tropical island she was visiting for a wifi signal so that she could ‘check in’ each day with the office. I am quite sure that the firm would have collapsed without such support.

Sir Andrew McFarlane, the President of the Family Division (well this is a law related piece) wrote recently in his View from the President’s Chamber, where in considering the ongoing crisis within the family justice system, invited dialogue on the taxing question (amongst others) of “the latest time in the evening, and the earliest time in the morning, when it is acceptable to send an email to another lawyer in a case or to the court”.

So what time do we stop sending emails to our opponents in an evening? 9pm? 10pm? Earlier? Later? 

From a barrister’s point of view it is very difficult to properly answer. Specialising in family law it is very rare (to receive my brief and bundle of papers any earlier than the night before a hearing. I read the papers usually once I get home from court (indeed depending on what time I leave court), usually, as I eat. This can take me into the small hours even to digest the papers, before as is often necessary drafting proposed court orders, position statements or skeletons. An arbitrary cut-off time for sending to the court or the other side whilst convenient in thought, is not necessarily practical in reality. It may intensify the pressure rather than avert it as it intends. 

There is I appreciate a desire sometimes by lawyers (I too have played the game) to be the last on a certain thread to email back to the others before sleeping. To show to them that you are winner of some macho-testosterone filled-non-existent game of chicken. Only to settle your head on the pillow to hear yet another beep (Tip: take all computer devices out of the bedroom) to show that the non-game-game had started again. Why italics here and below who wrote this ??

But then to balance, there is the fear that we will awake in the morning to a slither of emails and associated documents, to be read in a dash as we travel to work.

The devastating reality is that the work-life balance has changed. We are on-call 24-7. There is an expectation by clients and by solicitors (and indeed often the court) that we as barristers (it is sadly the same in other professions) can and will work throughout what is safe, reasonable or sensible. The fear of self-employed barristers is if we don’t put in the work, do the hours and show that we are doing them, then someone else will. What is encouraging is that the President of the Family Division is alive to this very serious issue as is the Bar Council; that Chambers are stepping up to form health and wellness committees to enhance where possible the experience of being a barrister (and indeed for staff working in chambers). Small steps to a cultural change, but important steps nonetheless. So what is too late?

Jason M Hadden is a barrister at St Ives Chambers and this piece was written whilst on holiday in an restaurant providing WIFI.

If you have any questions about the Wellbeing at the Bar programme, please contact the Bar Council's Head of Equality & Diversity & CSR, Sam Mercer [email protected]