Don't read your e-mail

What did we do before e-mail? Somehow we--as species--landed on the moon; created a vaccine for polio; authored Hamlet, the 9th Symphony, and Blue Suede Shoes; scaled Everest; performed the first heart transplant....

All before the advent of e-mail.

We were told, check your [work] e-mail over the summer, at least to keep it cleared out.

In my mind, I whispered a steely, resolute, "No."

Yes, occasionally I checked it to clear out the spam...and I'll admit to peeking at a few messages just to see what I already knew--there were idiotic pleas to think about, do, ponder, plan, make ready, consider, answer, file, fax....

And then I stopped; we stopped; my colleagues and I stopped.

And, when I received an e-mail at my home e-mail address, that's when I recommitted myself to this principle:

"When you PAY me for working over the summer, I will gladly WORK over the SUMMER. Answering e-mail is work. Therefore, no.

If there is SO MUCH work to be done, whether that be planning revisions to the chemistry curriculum, planning a reshuffling of world language teaching assignments, deciding how to divide up special needs students among the 4th grade teachers, deciding who will run the lights for the fall play, meeting (!!) to iron out the AP Calculus curriculum, fundraising (!!!)....

...planning,
...thinking,
...doing,
...deciding,
...cleaning,
...painting,
...moving furniture,
...buying (!),

In ANY OTHER space, discipline, field, the aforementioned tasks, "duties," or "favors" are otherwise known as "work."

And I get paid to do work.
***

E-mail –don’t do it – you’re on unpaid leave of absence.

If you are tempted, figure out how long it will take you to clear out the spam, answer messages, and mentally digest all that just got dumped on your head...Would it take an hour? 30 minutes? How much is that worth? 50 bucks? 100 bucks? 20 bucks? Take that money and take your child shopping, or put it in your child's college fund. Or go out and have fun.

Because during the school year, are they going to let you come 30 minutes late, or leave 30 minutes early, to make up for the time you DONATED over the summer?

No, I didn't think so.