Livingstone Range School Division

Weekdays ‘Til 6

Livingstone Range School Division is committed to staff health and wellness. Our Weekdays ‘Til 6 initiative improves work/life balance, health, and wellbeing for our entire team and will benefit families and parents as well.

In LRSD, non-emergency emails/texts are sent prior to 6pm on weekdays and not in the evenings or on weekends. We believe after-hours activities should include rest, exercise, time with family/friends, and the other work/life responsibilities. Some urgent or emergency situations may require discretionary exceptions.

What problems are we trying to solve?

  • Expectations to always be available and connected
  • Health and wellness challenges associated with stress, lack of sleep, and insufficient down time
  • Ineffective communication through email and text chains 
  • Distraction by after-hour email messages
  • Bedtime and weekend sabotage from work emails and texts
  • Less collaborative and less effective decision making

FAQs

  • Is this a policy?
    No. It’s a health and wellness initiative led by LRSD leadership that we consider ‘structured disengagement’ for the wellbeing of our staff.

  • Does this mean staff can’t work at night or on the weekends?
    Staff are free to check email and texts and do your work whenever works best for them. We’re just asking that staff don’t invite others to join in working after 6pm on weekdays and on weekends.

  • If everyone waits to send their email in the morning, won’t we have the same number of emails in our inbox when we get to work?
    We don’t think so. Other organizations who have tried this have experienced a decreased use of email, and we believe it will help us start to think differently about email, communication, and planning.

  • Are we asking parents to try this approach as well?
    We will start by refraining from sending parents evening and weekend emails/texts, and replying to them on the next school day. 

We respect time outside of work. After-hours activities should include rest, exercise, time with family & friends, hobbies, and other responsibilities, but not work emails and texts.