I am at lunch until 1, and at 12:20 I had to shut off my email program because I would sit here and answer every one I got for the next 40 minutes.

French people solve this by not having lunch at their desk.

I'm sure I've missed a few birthdays over the last ocuple of days, but congrats to Kiba and Nicole on their respective marriages (not to each other) and to Lisa on her engagement.

French people solve this by not having lunch at their desk.

I understand the individual words here, but huh? The only way I don't do this, is when I'm working from home. Then again, at home I tend to work and eat at the same time, just in a more comfortable setting.

Two of my co-worker bring home work and check their emails regularly when they are off. The other two of us never do. I only check my work email at home if I am expecting a perosnal email there.

French people solve this by not having lunch at their desk.

I solve this problem by staying online here during lunch at my desk.

My boss has said that he expects people to answer Blackberries and therefore work emails while on vacation. I told him that was working on vacation and he straightfaced said that he did not consider answering emails from work as work. I think he understood my lack of response and facial expression as "hells no".

I don't eat at my desk because I feel I have to. I just often would rather watch Hulu or do my internet thing than eat out or sit in the break room.

Yeah, I eat lunch at my desk, but I'm not working - I'm here. (Which differs from the rest of my workday...not much. But still.)

I'm here, or elsewhere non-work related, but when I have Outlook open, something will pop up and I'll think, "Oh, I'll just answer that quickly," and then I get another ten or fifteen.

We are technically not allowed to eat at our desks, though we who don't deal with archival records do it all the time. (Liquids in covered containers are the only thing we can have.) But if I need to heat something up, I can't really walk out of the staff lounge with it to go back to my desk.

That's why I don't let Outlook tell me about emails. I'll still get the pop-up notifications for meetings, but emails come in quietly without fanfare - I don't know they're there until I open that window.