I’m not too fussed about work/personal life separation, especially after hybrid working has become the norm, and since my role hasn’t been “mission critical” for a while now, which means I normally don’t get after-hours calls or emails.

But on the rare occasion I do get a work mail after-hours, I might read it if I’m free. Or even action it, if it can help me prepare for the next day (like say I need to do some research on a new product/topic). The way I look at this is, if I spend x minutes doing work stuff outside of work, then I’m gonna spend x minutes on personal stuff during work hours. Overall, I try to maintain a flexible “8hrs of work in a 24hr period” policy, instead of a “my work is strictly between 9-5” type thinking.

What I do mind however, is spam. And that means receiving unwanted, non-work, or even non-role related emails in my mailbox. I like to run a tight mailbox (an “inbox zero” policy), so if I were the recipient of that sunscreen email, I’d be mildly annoyed. Then I’d immediately look for an unsubscribe link, and/or create a rule to delete such emails email the future, and/or move it into the junk folder.