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'Out of office' autoreplies

Ganesh

11:07 / 29.09.04

I seem to be running up against a lot of these recently, probably because I'm simultaneously arranging a new job and rearranging a mortgage. They're just as irritating as answering machines were when they first began to spread - and I'm sure they'll become just as ubiquitous.

Can someone more experienced with these bastard things advise me: does the AutoReply mean I have to resend my email when the individual in question returns, or is it sitting in their Inbox, waiting for a proper reply?

Hattie's Kitchen

11:16 / 29.09.04

You don't have to resend - the email you sent is delivered to the recipient's inbox and the Out of Office reply is generated automatically, until the recipient logs back in and turns off the setting.

They annoy the tits off me too, by the way.

Sax

11:24 / 29.09.04

Sax is not here to reply to this thread at the moment, but he will do so when he returns to Barbelith tomorrow.

Loomis

11:29 / 29.09.04

My old boss used to insist that we all put those on, even if we were only away for a couple of hours, so that people would know we weren't ignoring them if they didn't get an instant reply. Ergh. He even tried to get us to change the setting so that a reply was sent every time, even if it was to the same person over and over (they are usually set so that each person will only get one out of office reply per day, no matter how many emails they send to the person). But we managed to resist that fortunately.

They can be handy sometimes as at least you know your email is waiting somewhere to be read. But then they suck particularly hard when you have to send an email to the whole company and you get twenty of these flying back at you.

Ganesh

11:43 / 29.09.04

Thankyou, office-folk.

Loomis

11:51 / 29.09.04

Now there's no need for name calling.

Sax

12:45 / 29.09.04

So what's your new job, then?

bitchiekittie

12:46 / 29.09.04

I'm not sure why anyone would find these annoying (with the exceptions of the global email barrage or the "I've popped out for 10 minutes!" message) - they're actually quite convenient, especially when you're looking for fast answers. I always provide alternative contact emails/numbers for those who do need answers while I'm away, and I find that this habit is particularly useful to me.

it's polite, really, and denotes a certain level of professionalism and commitment...even if you haven’t got any of either.

Ariadne

12:52 / 29.09.04

I agree - I'd rather know, otherwise I wonder why someone's ignoring me.
They can get hugely annoying on mailing lists, though, bouncing back to every reply.

Ganesh

13:15 / 29.09.04

So what's your new job, then?

Locum Consultant (hopefully to become permanent soon-ish).

Sax

13:50 / 29.09.04

As opposed to Loco Consultant, then.

Congrats, you. Hope you get a nice wedge out of it.

And a pay-rise, too.

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