Just too early

I was reading another academic blog about the issue of weekend emails. That is, that people are expected to be "on call" at all times to respond to emails should the issue arise. The particular issue didn't have to do with students, but with other work-related issues. I haven't come across this too often (yet), but because of some international colleagues, I have had another problem come up several times, most recently this morning.

One of my collaborators is in Taiwan (T), while another is local (ie, in the same time zone as me, and we'll call him L). Of course it is natural that we get emails from T overnight. But this morning, while I was still in bed (as it was 5am), he sent an email to confirm that we were still having a conference call tomorrow night. L confirmed (that's fine with me) and said, "How about 10pm, although I mildly prefer 9?" This response was sent at 6:30am. A short time later, 9:30 was suggested as a compromise, and then L said "No, considering our last meeting, this will go past ten anyway, and 9 was just a mild preference, so let's say 10." This last email was sent just as my alarm was going off.

Now, let me say this, our last meeting began at 10, and lasted until 11:30pm. That being said (which I did in an email as soon as I could), I would prefer an earlier time for starting, because it lasted so long.

But really, I was frustrated that the decision was just being made, as if 6:30 in the morning is a perfectly acceptable time to expect a response from someone. It would have been better, I feel, for either of them to make a comment urging a quick response from their colleague, to weigh in. I almost felt like pointing out that we set it to be 9pm originally (which is 10am in Taiwan, so it's not an absurdly early hour, by the way), but I don't really mind it being at 9:30.