Today was my first day on a new job

[undeterred]

and this evening I got an email from my supervisor (who works out of an office in another city) in my personal account asking how my day was. I didn't reply... I don't really want to do that on my personal time.

Is that bad?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. Reply.

[MrScorpio]

2. You should have replied

But kept it ALL business

He did it first, Ma

[napi21]

3. That's BAD. Send a reply.

If you already hate the job, then quit, but if you like it or aren't sure yet, don't hang yourself with the "bad attitude" tag already!

[undeterred]

5. Do you correspond with your manager at 9:30 pm?

Do they expect you to be answering messages at that hour? That's my time. The job is going to take up a huge amount of my life. Why can't she ask me how its going at 9 in the morning?

[napi21]

12. How much time are you really talking about. Two minutes?

Remember, your boss is out of town as you said. It's a bit different than walking into your office tomorrow morning and asking you. Don't be so defensive. I understand if a demand for working at home becomes a habit, but it doesn't sound like she's asking you to work after hours, but just trying to be nice, and asking you how your day went.

[undeterred]

18. Its not the time, its the boundary

When work is over, it should be over unless something urgent comes up.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

20. Considering it's a tech job let them wait.

They won't respect you in the morning.

[napi21]

22. YOu're pushing the envelope here. If you want to be successsful

on any job, you have to play nice. Quit worrying so much about your personal time, be nice to the boss, and do a good job.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

23. It's the tech industry, it's different.

[undeterred]

25. jeez...

I'm going to bed and I'm not going to think about work again until I get there.

[2Design]

29. follow your intution - you seem to be on track

your boss maybe works and does email at all hours -
I am sure you have had friends who do email and you don't answer right away - if you are out or whatever

the boundary thing is important
I don't think you need to say anything as others have stated - you create the boundary by your actions - the words don't have to be said

When you get to work tomorrow you answer, and tell her what you thought and thank her for checking in with you and how that makes it special

not trying to put words in your mouth - just be business honest

your fine not replying

same goes for when you are at work - you don't do personal emails

setting the boundaries in a technological world are important

[caty]

4. Yes, reply.

He was showing interest in you and you need to reply as a courtesy.

[Kathleen04]

6. Just send a quick note

Doesn't have to be detailed..Something like:

"My first day was fine, I think I'm going to enjoy working for the company. Thanks for asking."

[Spinzonner]

7. Well, if s/he makes a habit of it it's an encroachment on your

personal life. What are the expectation of the job ?

Does s/he have any reason to expect that you're on line all the time ?

I'd make a conscious effort to delay opening such messages until later in the evening, perhaps before you quit for the evening but do reply. Perhaps if the replies are so late as to not reach him/her until the next morning - and be rendered less valuable - it will lower your supervisors expectations about being able to reach you that way and discourage overuse.

[intheflow]

9. Self-delete.

Meant to answer the OP. D'oh!

[undeterred]

11. Its a tech job

but there is no expectation that I should be on line all the time.

I am actually kind of exhausted... got up at 6 am, got home from work at 6:30 pm, took the dog out, made dinner, ran errands, watched tv, came to check my email after 10. I actually did reply to her 1st email an hour before (at 9pm) and then came another one. It makes me nervous.

I don't want to feel like I have to check my email last thing before I go to bed at night... isn't 9 hours of my day enough?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

14. In that case let them wait.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

8. I would reply

Doesn't have to be long, but I'd hate to risk making a bad impression.

[intheflow]

10. Reply in the morning.

During working hours. Answer him, tell him if your day was good. Then him that you conduct business during business hours, and you would appreciate his not contacting you at your home email unless it is an emergency. You can do this nicely, I know you can!

Natually this only applies to someone working a straight 9-5 job. If you're a consultant or a middle mgmt.-type expected to put in hours at home, you shouldn't be surprised he's contacting you on your private email. Still... it's mighty weird he's not using your work email. I think it sounds like a boundary issue.

[undeterred]

16. thanks, thats how I feel about it

it is a 9-5 job, and although I'm sure there will be times when it spills over by accident, I don't want evening correspondence to be the norm. She's needed to communicate with me via personal email until I was hired, but now that I have a work account (which I can check from home) I'm surprised she would still use the personal one.

[Lex]

13. Bad move. You should reply. Heck, it shows your supervisor cares

about you and how your day went.

To blow that off would be a bad thing.

If later your personal time is impinged upon, that would be entirely different.

[madeline_con]

15. Who aksed me?

But I'd reply on office time as soon as I arrived in the AM.

Then, like the other poster said, the manager wouldn't assume you could be reached at any time.

[undeterred]

17. She emailed my personal Yahoo account

which is inaccessible from the office computers. So, I have to reply from it at home on personal time.

[madeline_con]

19. I see...

You could fiegn not having received it. It would also help discourage that behavior in the future.

[undeterred]

21. Yahoo is blocked because their spam filters are terrible

and it opens up the company network to more problems with viruses. Lots of companies block webmail sites so employees don't do personal email on work time.

She had my personal email because that was the appropriate way to correspond from the time she found my resume on the internet until I was hired and started work.

[Spinzonner]

24. Beware about reading some emails but not replying

There are some tools like this:

http://www.msgtag.com/home/

that allow people to receive notifications. Ignoring it - even fi only a delay - would look bad in such situations.

[madeline_con]

27. You beat me to it...

People can sometimes tell if you've received, even opened, the email.

[madeline_con]

26. Some companies...

Expect employees live, eat and sleep their jobs.

I'd be wary of this situation, as it could open that sort of door. :(

[Crazy Guggenheim]

28. Respect comes first. If you answer too quickly they will lose

respect for you.