I have always been a big opponent of “Always On Cultures.”  Those are ones where you are expected to frequently check emails and IM outside of work hours.  Don’t get me wrong, there are times when big projects are going live, or big deals are near closing, that you need to be always watching communications.  But when it is 24/7 it is not healthy.  If you aren’t taking good care of yourself, you can’t take good care of others.  But when the team is global, how do you make it clear it is okay to disconnect?

First off, you need to have leadership that not only acknowledges that people have lives outside of work – but they also need to message that.

Another item is to have it be common to acknowledge that the email or IM is coming during non-working hours and that you’d expect a reply until the person is back in the office. It used to be that messages were considered to be “respond during office hours” unless specifically marked urgent. These days it has switched, and employees “assume” it is urgent unless told otherwhise.