Is Your “Out of Office Reply” Creating More Work?

If your out-of-office email reply suggests that you will get back to everyone…as soon as you return…it may be time to make a big change.

The number of emails sent daily has increased 34 percent since 2017. When you are on PTO, you might welcome relief from all these messages. But does your Out of Office reply make promises you shouldn’t have to keep—like, “I will get back to you as soon as I return”? Making good on this pledge might require superhuman powers, not to mention being a waste of your valuable post vacation time. 

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, reporter Elizabeth Bernstein found some great examples of a more creative approach:

• Barry Ritholtz, chief investment officer of the New York wealth-management firm that bears his name, stated in his recent out-of-office message that he was in Maine and, “During this time, I will …not [be] checking emails, avoiding texts, ignoring Slack, letting calls go to voicemail, off the grid, and generally unreachable. As such, my auto-responder is, well, auto-responding.”
• In his standard out-of-office message, Peter Harrison explains that he is “out on PTO” and won’t be checking email. Then he encourages the recipient to follow his lead. “By doing so, you will help foster a workplace that is people first, respects paid time off, promotes balance, and dismantles always-on culture,”
• Andrew Riesen, 33, co-founder of a Seattle start up, was on paternity leave and his out-of-office message stated that he likely wouldn’t respond to emails during his six-to-eight-week paternity leave. “There’s nothing so important that it needs to take precedence over our new little one,” he wrote. He also said he wouldn’t be checking a pile of emails” immediately when he got back.

If these replies serve their purpose, your time off may actually be your time. And returning to work, won’t be an exhausting struggle. 

What does your Out of Office Reply say, and do you feel inclined to change it? To join the conversation, click on "comments" below.

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