Wally Backman -- Kicking it old school

bk400 · #1 08-30-2025, 04:27 PM

I didn't ask the guy to respond over the weekend (although that's what I would've done at his age and at that stage of my career). I just sent him the email over the weekend. How mentally weak do you have to be to find that receiving an email over the weekend creates undue work pressure?

I guess I'm just a dinosaur. Got my call with HR on Monday. The guy copied in HR, a nice woman my age who, apparently, not only reads emails over the weekend, but also responds.

packs · #2 08-30-2025, 04:34 PM

There are 40 hours a week for you to communicate with your colleague. France passed a right to disconnect law not too long ago. Businesses there can rack up fines for not respecting out of office hours. People’s priorities are shifting to life ahead of work and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I have a family. The most important things I do will happen outside the office and I have a limited enough time to do them as it is.

bk400 · #3 08-30-2025, 05:06 PM

All fair points. But then we should be able to promote more quickly those who take the initiative to go above and beyond the bare minimum of, ahem, French labor law.

It's like professional baseball -- the best get promoted to the big leagues, not the best per 40 (or 35, in the case of France) hours worked.

tiger8mush · #4 08-30-2025, 05:20 PM

My work email address is different from my person email address. So send as many work emails to me you want over the weekend, I'll check 'em Monday morning

p.s. hilarious rant from Wally lol

bk400 · #5 08-31-2025, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiger8mush

My work email address is different from my person email address. So send as many work emails to me you want over the weekend, I'll check 'em Monday morning

p.s. hilarious rant from Wally lol

And that would be perfectly fine. And you'd get bonus points for not whining to HR about the mental stress that I am causing you.

So I decided to just email another young colleague -- a young woman who was a D1 rower. So not weak mentally.

She responded, completed the work (a few hours' worth), and sent it to back to me already (Sunday night where I am right now). Good to know there are still some ass kickers out there.

I'm going to ask her tomorrow if she knows who Wally Backman is. Even odds says she does. Let's Go Mets!!

packs · #6 08-31-2025, 06:33 AM

Setting boundaries is mature and so is being direct with someone who is bothering you. Those aren’t weak traits but you’re trying to paint the person as weak because they put their foot down.

bk400 · #7 08-31-2025, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by packs

Setting boundaries is mature and so is being direct with someone who is bothering you. Those aren�t weak traits but you�re trying to paint the person as weak because they put their foot down.

With all earnestness, I see where you are coming from.

I guess I just don't understand why someone just starting out would be so concerned about work life balance. When someone sends you an email over the weekend, that's an opportunity to show your initiative and highlight your responsiveness. At least it was when I was his age. It's not a mental health assault. Careers may not be the entirety of someone's identity, but especially for young people just starting out, I would have thought it would at least be an important part.

jayshum · #8 08-31-2025, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bk400

And that would be perfectly fine. And you'd get bonus points for not whining to HR about the mental stress that I am causing you.

So I decided to just email another young colleague -- a young woman who was a D1 rower. So not weak mentally.

She responded, completed the work (a few hours' worth), and sent it to back to me already (Sunday night where I am right now). Good to know there are still some ass kickers out there.

I'm going to ask her tomorrow if she knows who Wally Backman is. Even odds says she does. Let's Go Mets!!

So someone complained to HR about you and then you decided to do the exact same thing involving someone else. You must be a popular guy at work.

packs · #9 08-31-2025, 08:04 AM

OP appreciates and commends the other employee who did not stand up for themselves and allowed their private time to be co-opted by a work colleague but describes the employee who stood up for themselves and was assertive in the situation as weak willed. Seems backwards to me. You might not like the request but a weak person wouldn’t have made it in my opinion.

bk400 · #10 08-31-2025, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayshum

So someone complained to HR about you and then you decided to do the exact same thing involving someone else. You must be a popular guy at work.

Interesting. And perhaps another fundamental disagreement. It's not my job to be popular at work; it's my job to deliver results and help instill less experienced colleagues with the skills and mentality to succeed in what is considered to be a fairly competitive field.

We'll see who gets further in his or her career, D1 Rower or BCC HR. If you don't think career success is relevant to long term happiness and security or if you define career success differently, well, to each his own.

Perhaps there will come a day when you can get promoted and paid well while perfectly protecting your work life balance. But I don't think that day is ever coming, at least not in competitive fields in a capitalist society.

To bring it back to baseball, how much would you pay to watch MLB baseball players whose time on the clock in a traditional corporate sense (training, travel, physio, weights, film, batting practice, etc.) were limited, by statute, to 40 hours per week?

These are grown men playing a children's game with no real life consequences, and we are fine if they have no work life balance for at least 6 months out of the year and probably for many years before that when they are trying to just make the big leagues.

Why should our more pedestrian industries be treated any differently? Isn't it a good thing if doctors, lawyers, accountants, financial advisers, money managers, car mechanics, and carpenters also strive to be the very best in their fields? Happy to be challenged on this, but I don't think there is any field where you can be the best while putting in the minimum 40, especially when you're just starting out and learning the ropes.

CardPadre · #11 08-31-2025, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bk400

And that would be perfectly fine. And you'd get bonus points for not whining to HR about the mental stress that I am causing you.

So I decided to just email another young colleague -- a young woman who was a D1 rower. So not weak mentally.

She responded, completed the work (a few hours' worth), and sent it to back to me already (Sunday night where I am right now). Good to know there are still some ass kickers out there.

I'm going to ask her tomorrow if she knows who Wally Backman is. Even odds says she does. Let's Go Mets!!

Yeah, this is the best part for me. The poor soul who felt compelled to do weekend work based on your certainly unwelcome email, now has an equally unwelcome conversation with you about Wally Backman in her future. Keep kicking ass, bud.

BobbyStrawberry · #12 08-31-2025, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardPadre

Yeah, this is the best part for me. The poor soul who felt compelled to do weekend work based on your certainly unwelcome email, now has an equally unwelcome conversation with you about Wally Backmam in her future. Keep kicking ass, bud.

"This guy at work wanted to talk to me about some baseball player from 40 years ago and I was like, dude, just don't send me work emails on the weekends anymore."

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