@O.Jones Oh man, I 100% agree. It takes strength of character to remain curious during the process as well. I often (and have personally struggled with) keeping it up past the first few questions before finding myself in a frustrating position. That being said, I have observed my betters cut through issues with it like a hot knife in butter. It's a skill to be mastered.

Never, ever, work off the clock. That time is often not covered by insurance, and can be disavowed by your company as reckless behaviour. Don't respond to emails on the weekend, don't work for free. Your time in clearly valuable to both you, and the company. Respect yourself.

Sounds like it worked out for you, and maybe it'll work out for OP as well. It's a risky move either way. Time you need to get your focus back is entirely subjective and biased. Plus, again, they could have just fired back at you and asked why you thought it was appropriate to waste 3 hours of company time everyday due to an unwillingness to resolve conflict yourself. Many managers that I've known would simply have terminated both of you if there were appropriate replacements available.

After working in a country that uses recruiters quite heavily, I've found it to be a good idea to meet with them and get information from them. At worst, you get lunch and know who not to call when you're looking for staff yourself. Otherwise, you've basically picked up knowledge about the state of labour pool is right now, plus possibly gleaned some knowledge about the competition. Eat, and make sure you're the one leading the discussions and asking questions.