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Design engineers: Can you shut off your brain during non-work hours?

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TimFox:

--- Quote from: DavidAlfa on June 13, 2023, 04:29:05 am ---This is not "right to disconnect", have you read anything?  :-//

--- End quote ---

Serious discussion:
https://www.prodoscore.com/blog/right-to-disconnect-laws-are-they-coming-to-the-us/

PlainName:
Don't see the problem. Either you like what you do and enjoy your mind churning things, or you clock watch and stop at the end of the day.

FWIW, I sometimes think up great solutions to work problems when I am drifting off to sleep. The only problem with that is remembering WTF the solution was when I wake up  |O As it happens, I realised one of my best solutions when I was mildly, er, intoxicated but managed to retain the idea the next morning and the implementation made a big contribution to my company's products of that time.

fourfathom:
I often lived some distance from my job, and had a one-hour each way commute over winding country roads.  That was some of my most productive time, as some days once I got to work I spent most of my time putting out other people's fires.  That was also critical to the company's success, and it's always interesting to help someone figure out a difficult situation, but for my own designs I needed the uninterrupted "flow" time.  For me that was often during my commute.  Or, between the hours of 11PM and 3AM, and I gave myself permission to come in to work late.  My boss backed me up on this.

langwadt:

--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on June 13, 2023, 08:17:49 am ---No, why?

I come on here to find other electronics ideas/questions/info to displace work stuff from my brain. ;D



--- Quote from: Bud on June 13, 2023, 04:25:32 am ---Never take work home. Learn to draw the line. At my current workplace we have official "Right to disconnect" policy. It explicitly  disallows work related calls and emails after hours unless you are in an overtime paid support role.

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It's interesting to distinguish between, just what simmers in your mind because it does, versus what work wants/needs you to do (and, what work should be expecting you to do).  If it's just, going to happen, or helps overall, don't worry about it; if you're expected to be on call, or staying late, or people putting big expectations on you, demanding boss(es) or clients, that sort of thing -- that's paid time, heck with that.

Also maybe matters whether it's hourly or salaried.  If hourly, it's kinda up to you how you want to count that; salaried, it's usually assumed or included, but you might argue that's the case whether, for example, your contract has a one of those "all your creative output is our property" clauses.

If it's becoming a source of stress, absolutely; disconnect, turn off your phone, disable email alerts, go do something fun, whether that's as similar as working on another (but unrelated) project, or completely unrelated like exercise, socializing, playing games, etc.  Your health comes first!

And if their expectations are out of sync with yours, or your pay, or contract, well, that's a political problem, not an engineering one; make your grievances known, and don't be afraid to shop for a new job; you have no duty to them beyond what they pay you!

For my part, I've probably confused people every so often, as I have a penchant of staying up at all hours (as is no mystery if you've been watching time/date of my posts here), so occasionally send a message during off hours.  I should probably keep in mind more often that people may have email alerts on their phone or whatever...

Tim

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I seem to remember Germany making it a law (or at least talking about it) banning emails after normal work hours

I think some Germany companies started it after they were forced to pay overtime to people reading and responding
to emails outside work hours, so they made it a policy to queue up emails delivery until normal work hours


mawyatt:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on June 13, 2023, 05:56:08 am ---Nope. I always see the engineerng angle in everything I see and do.

--- End quote ---

Think this is the gift/curse of all good scientist/engineers!!

Best

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