An email out of hours is harassment, Oxford dons told

OXFORD dons have been advised not to send emails after hours, amid a string of reforms aimed at combating harassment.

Academics have been asked by university administrators to keep online correspondence to “normal working hours” to minimise the risk of colleagues feeling harangued.

Details of the new “email protocol” were set out in the minutes of the English faculty’s joint consultative committee earlier this year. The minutes also reported the outcome of a staff survey that found that 35 per cent of female respondents reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the previous year, compared with 8 per cent of male respondents.

Oxford’s English faculty expressed a “general enthusiasm” for the new guidelines, but some academics saw avoiding sending emails outside of normal working hours as “difficult” given their academic workload.

The move brings Oxford in line with similar efforts at Cambridge University, where language faculty staff are advised to watch their tone and “avoid writing anything that could be construed as rude or curt”.

Last year Cambridge University admitted that it had a “significant problem” with sexual misconduct after receiving almost 200 complaints in a matter of months.

Graham Virgo, Cambridge’s senior pro-vice-chancellor, said the university had made a number of big changes to tackle the problem, including an anonymous reporting tool and a campaign to raise awareness.

He said: “Sexual harassment… is one of the most under-reported crimes as a result of stigma and victim blaming attached to it. We have to continue to address this and we will.”