This is how I work

Like many people, I have my own working patterns and behaviours. I don’t expect others to operate in the same way. For example, I might send an email or a Slack message early in the morning or late at night, but I don’t expect a response outside ‘office hours’.

Some of these behaviours are due to my family responsibilities, some are just my personal idiosyncrasy.

• I like a full hour for lunch.
• 5pm to 8pm is family time: picking my daughters up from school, getting them ready for bed, dinner with my wife.
• I often work and send messages before 9am and after 8pm.
• I never expect an immediate response to a question. If I need a quick response, I’ll say so.
• If I want to focus on something I switch off Outlook and Slack and any other messaging tools.
• I tend to schedule meetings for 25 minutes instead of 30 minutes, starting at 5 minutes past the hour to give me and other attendees a short break between meetings.
• I try to be punctual for meetings and to finish them by the time I said they’d finish.
• I value openness and clarity. I will question others’ views and I like my own views to be questioned.
• I share early drafts of things and I often think aloud.
• I will never preface an email subject line with “URGENT! IMMEDIATE RESPONSE REQUIRED!!!”
• Friday is POETS Day.

Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash