Weekdays 'Til 6 In Pandemic Times

With classes cancelled and many folks working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, schedules might feel like a thing of the past. The lines are blurred between home, school, and work: often they're all happening at the kitchen table at all hours of day and night! One recent internet meme says: "9pm - the time to remove your day pajamas and put your night pajamas on." It's hard to tell where the usual boundaries of our lives are anymore.

In November 2019, Livingstone Range School Division introduced the Weekdays 'Til 6 initiative. In an effort to improve work/life balance, health, and wellbeing for our entire team and as well as parents and families, LRSD staff were asked to send non-emergency emails/texts prior to 6pm on weekdays and not in the evenings or on weekends.

During normal life and school, Weekdays 'Til 6 allowed after-hours activities for our staff to include rest, exercise, time with family & friends, hobbies, and other responsibilities, but not work emails and texts. Now, during these unusual times of the COVID-19 pandemic, we see a need to reset these boundaries.

While it may be tempting to work longer hours than normal or to connect with people in the evenings and on weekends due to isolation and remote learning, we again ask staff, students, parents to keep their emails/text to weekdays prior to 6pm and not in the evenings or on weekends.

We understand that these are unusual times and after 6pm may be the best or only time for parents or students to email/text. Please know that your questions and communications are important to us. If you send an email/text after 6pm you can be assured that our staff will respond between 6am-6pm the next week day.

Some urgent or emergency situations may require discretionary exceptions, but we believe that by keeping our email and text communication to Weekdays 'Til 6, we will all benefit from improved balance and routines.