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Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companys workplace advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions.Q: How can I get my boss to stop emailing me in the middle of the night?A: This dilemma is closely related to the question of how to say “no” at work without feeling guilty and how to push back if your workload is too much. All are part of setting boundaries, but in an uncertain job market, drawing firm lines between work and personal time can feel more fraught.That doesnt mean that you shouldnt set boundaries. In fact, the most valuable, creative, productive, and innovative employees are never the workaholics who respond to messages at all hours. Numerous studies have shown that an always on culture not only destroys employee morale but causes stress that negatively impacts job performance.While you cant control your bosss behavior or work style, you can set clear expectations for how you work. Here are a few ways to do it: Create office hours for yourself Most of us work in some kind of remote or hybrid capacity, which means we often work with people in different time zones. Even those in the same time zone may have different chronotypes, or times of the day you are most productive. For this reason, many people have found it useful to put a message on their email, Slack, and other communication platforms that says something like My working hours from 9 a.m. EST to 5 p.m. EST. I will respond to your message within those hours. You can include that as part of your status or signature or as an auto reply to messages received outside of those hours.If you tend to on a less traditional schedule, you can also signal to those you work with that while you might be emailing them at 9 p.m. or 6 a.m., you dont expect them to respond. Including a signature line like: “My working hours may not be your working hours. Please do not feel obligated to reply outside of your normal work schedule,” can go a long way in showing that you have reasonable expectations.Both of these approaches can be a good start to let your boss know that you wont be responding to off-hour messages without being confrontational. You can also just set your status to snooze notifications or better yet, put your devices away in a separate room. Have a direct conversation At least 60% of my workplace advice boils down to have a direct conversation. It may feel obvious, but most people avoid uncomfortable workplace discussions. However, once you get over the initial fear and awkwardness of bringing something up, a direct conversation is often the best way to address an issue. In this case, you can bring it up in during another regular check-in when you are already talking about projects you are working on.Try something like By the way, I think our hours are a little misaligned. Ive noticed some off-hours messages from you. I snooze my notifications on weekends and after 5 p.m. on weekdays, so thats why I dont respond right away. You can also often advice if you think theyd be open to it: Did you know you can schedule your messages to send during work hours?If both of those approaches dont work, you can just not respond to the messages and if your boss brings it up you can point to overtime laws in many areas that make it illegal for bosses to contact employees outside of work hours. Work often doesnt fit neatly in a 95 box, and you should always first assume good intentions (and have empathy for your boss who might themselves be under a lot of pressure). But you should always protect your work-life balance, because thats what makes you the best employeenot the your 11 p.m. email response time.Want more advice on setting boundaries at work? Here you go: 5 reasons why answering work emails and texts after hours is backfiring What sending after-hours emails does to your productivity How to get better at setting boundaries How can I push back if my workload is too much?
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If you follow much tech news, youve probably read about the Reddit theory of search. The Reddit theory is the idea that the best info you can get from Googling anything these days comes from Redditand the power of crowdsourced wisdom. You want to find the best portable battery pack? Or uncover the secret to getting Sharpie off your skin? See what scores of Redditors have settled on and save yourself the trouble of trying to dig up a definitive answer from any single source without all that extra perspective. Its become such a popular tactic, in fact, that Google inked a major deal to feature Reddit info more prominently in its results. But you still never know exactly what youre gonna get for any given search, and finding anything close to a consensus of opinions is often easier said than done. My friend, Ive found a better way. Allow me to introduce you to the search-supplementing supertool you never knew you needed. Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures! Answers, answers, everywhere All rightso here it is: Few mere mortals who arent Reddit regulars realize it, but Reddit recently launched its own interactive search system for finding worthwhile info across the site. Its called Reddit Answers. And Ive legitimately been blown away by how useful and effective of a resource it can be. Youll only need about 20 seconds to see what it can do. Just open up the Reddit Answers website, then type any question or general search query into the box in the center of the screen. Reddit Answers offers up a single search box where you can ask anything. [Screenshot: Reddit Answers] The key here is to think about this as a specific sort of supplement for your standard searching. Reddit probably isnt the place to turn for objective facts, definitions, or any other such info. But it is an unmatched repository of genuine human opinion on a huge range of topics, and Reddit Answers helps you navigate that sea of sentiment better than any other tool Ive tried. So, for instance, if youre seeking out a new smart lock for your home, you might find it helpful to see a big-picture view of opinions from relevant Reddit discussions on the subject: You can get instant summaries of opinions from all across Reddit without any time-consuming searching. [Screenshot: Reddit Answers] Or if youre planning a trip, you might benefit from browsing through stacks of firsthand opinions on different neighborhoods within a certain city: Reddit Answers pulls info from numerous threads and sums ’em up for easy skimmingand further probing, too, if you want. [Screenshot: Reddit Answers] What makes Reddit Answers especially interesting for me is not only the info it gives you but also the way in which it structures it. Instead of just serving up scattered answers, it shows you smart summaries along with links to specific threads for more detailed reading. Its like a gateway into a wild and often unapproachable jungle of popular perspectivesa starting point that makes it infinitely easier to explore that info without having to scroll through a zillion different pages and put it all together on your own. Reddit Answers works entirely on the web, in whatever browser you like. Its free. And you dont have to sign in or share any sort of personal info to use it. That being said, you will be limited to 10 queries a week if you dont sign in (and a regular Reddit account is free and easy to create). Ready to rev up your productivity even further? Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in some truly delightful waysand another off-the-beaten-path gem in your inbox every Wednesday!
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Nearly a decade after Congress passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, the law is facing an uncertain future. Not to be confused with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (which shares the same acronym), the lawoften referred to as CISA 2015 to avoid confusionwas designed to clear the way between private companies and the federal government to more openly share cyber threat data. Supporters argued it would bolster national cybersecurity by speeding up the flow of information about emerging attacks. In ways that most people dont see, the law has helped financial firms, hospitals, and major retailers spot and respond to threats fasterthwarting ransomware, phishing scams, and other attacks before they spiral. But CISA 2015 came with a built-in expiration dateand that clock is now ticking. Key provisions of the law are scheduled to sunset at the end of September unless Congress acts to renew them. As lawmakers weigh the future of CISA 2015, theyll have to navigate a tricky set of obstaclesnamely skepticism from privacy advocates. Fast Company spoke with Matthew Eggers, vice president for cybersecurity policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, about whats at stake in the renewal process. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Broadly speaking, how has the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act shaped the governments relationship with the private sector? The law, and the attitude that it’s built up over the years, has really provided government entities with a host of cyber threat data that they can’t get on their own. In a lot of ways, the information-sharing legislation has built a lot of connective tissue between the government and industry. What were trying to say to Congress is they need to pass the legislation by September 30, because not only is the law the cornerstone of U.S. cyber security, but it’s also to their benefit. They’ve got the public and private entities in their districts, in their state, that are under attack from cyber criminals and foreign nationsChina, Russia, Iran, North Korea. Can you give an example of a tangible impact the law has made? I look at something like the food and ag sector. They’ve got a new Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and I think that is definitely an outgrowth of CISA 2015. There was a very good paper that David Turetsky, a professor at the University of Albany, put out in 2020 that showcases cyber success stories. It basically hits on a small fraction of the incidents that were probably mitigated or prevented. Thats one of the things about cyber information sharing: It’s hard to prove or show situations where you probably stop attacks at the outset or mitigate them. What is at stake, then, if the law lapses? It’s probably the case that information sharing would go down, and that’s in no one’s interest. There was information sharing happening before CISA 2015 passed, but what you’ve seen is an expansion of information-sharing bodies. And we don’t want to undercut that progress that’s been made. The other thing thats at stake is trust. It takes a long time to build trust among individuals and organizations; at the end of day, it’s individuals within organizations who share information, and they have to know one another. Is a straight reauthorization sufficient? Some folks have pushed to modernize the law to address new cyberthreats like AI-driven attacks. It’s definitely part of the mix, and I can say that many leading organizations that are invested in this law are giving that a lot of thought. The law expires September 30; we definitely don’t want the law to lapse, but it only makes sense that we should be thinking about ways to improve the program, and I think that would likely entail new legislation. That can take time to consider. Do we have time to do that? I think that remains to be seen. Our priority is making sure that the program doesn’t lapse. Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have argued that the law doesn’t have sufficient safeguards for data. What is your response to those concerns? I think those concerns were unfounded when the program was being considered. A Congressional Research Service report that just came out showed that industry and government have a strong record of safeguarding privacy and civil liberties under CISA 2015. And to my knowledge, there have not been any privacy incidents. Plus, sharing privacy information really doesn’t do an organization much good from a cyber standpoint. Typically, what you’re sharing are cyber threat indicators, which are things like domain names, log data, malware, date stamps, stuff like that. Senator Rand Paul was a major opponent of the original bill, and hes now chairing the Senates Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. Have you engaged with him directly? We have been engaging his staff, and would be more than willing to engage him. I would say it’s just a matter of time before we try to meet with him. We’re always willing to talk. One thing were trying to do is more or less impress upon him the importance of the program to his state’s public and private entities. President Trump hasnt said anything on the laws future, but there have been cuts to similar cyber initiatives. The people he is putting into positions at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and likely the Office of the National Cyber Director and the National Security Councilthey get the importance of information sharing. Probably between now and September, when you may see a statement of administration policy, I can’t help but think that there would be a thumbs-up in favor of this program. Someone like Sean Plankey, who is expected to head up CISA, I know personally that he believes in the importance of this kind of effort.
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