Would this be acceptable in your workplace?

In some counties companies have (used to have?) rules that automatically deleted emails sent to people who are on vacation - Mercedes parent company being the most famous.

https://www.engadget.com/2014-08-17-daimler-deletes-out-of-office-email.html

Before I had a P.A. I’d routinely cleanse my email by deleting everything that was more than 4 weeks old - though that was a while back and I’m not sure I’d get away with it nowadays...but I did that across a few multinational tech companies for years. Nothing that critical was ever sent by email, and it it was they’d soon chase. Fortunately I have left the world of work and no longer have to deal with email nonsense…🤣

If I do a delay sending in my Outlook I can't close my Outlook until it's gone!

YANBU OP - it basically says "I'm too lazy to go through my inbox when I get back, so I'm putting the responsibility back on you"

YANBU. What a cheek. I'd never ask people to re-send things because I was the one out of the office.

Coming back to thousands of emails. There in lies the real problem. People need to ensure emails are only sent when needed and to the person who needs to see it. If you are not going to read ones sent during an absence then make them undeliverable, not delete them all on return. Some ate for information and don't need resending because you don't read them.

It would be acceptable where I work but that's because we work autonomously, not many of us, flat hierarchical system and no cover when on leave!

Seems really rude to me.

I don’t do it as unless they recall the message it’s still going to be there so then sending again when you get back just doubles the number of emails

But yes I have seen it as well as all emails sent while away will be deleted when I get back so if you still need me message again or words to that effect. Now that’s brave

One thing an old manager of mine did was decline meetings if there was no explanation/agenda in the invite, with a message saying tell me why you are inviting me and then I will decide whether I will attend. I mentioned it during a training once and was surprised that this automatically declining meetings unless you are told why you have been invited is very common

I've never seen anything like this, and wouldn't be acceptable where I work - IT multinational. We always have an ooo set with a return date and alternative contact in the meantime.........

I wouldn’t do this myself as I wouldn’t trust the other person to remember to email me later, and I’d end up with a very short deadline. I have set up rules to help prioritise my inbox, and with my out of office I try to steer the requester in a way that makes the question and the deadline clear. I don’t have anyone to pick up my work while I’m away so I try to manage expectations ahead of time.
If someone else puts this then I schedule send for the date they return.

Seems very strange but i do like to use to option for emails to send when the person returns automatically on outlook as I think it means my email will be nearer the top and more likely to be read sooner.

It would be frowned upon in my workplace. We would certainly be expected to go through all the emails that were sent while we were out.

However then we get relatively little personal emails compared to some other industries.

I don't think it has anything to do with public or commercial sectors. I work in policing project management and this would be a definite no. People expect (rightly) public sector organisations to provide an alternative route in - 'if your query is urgent please contact, otherwise I will respond when I return'. And that has always been my experience with public sector organisations - because they frequently have statutory deadlines to keep, where delays due to absence are no excuse.

Not sure how you conclude "it cuts down e-mail traffic".

If I've sent you an e-mail, then that would be it, done the normal way. An automated OoO comes back so I know you're away, then within a couple of days of your return you will be able to read it and complete any actions.

With this rather presumptuous demand, There is the original e-mail, the OoO, then if I were to send it again (I mean, I wouldn't but....) then you get MORE e-mail traffic, not less.

An OoO should state when you are returning and who to contact if it needs a more urgent response.

I do this. But phrase it ask to consider sending on my return. But I always add in the main team email asking to send it to that address if urgent. I don’t get angry if someone sends me an email when I am off. But I do find I come back with less emails and can start to answer them when they arrive.

I can go away for a week and come back to 300 emails. Non of it that urgent. Takes me days to get through. My organisation is very email heavy

however on my last 2 week holiday I had many angry emails asking why I had t replied to a non urgent email despite out of office on. Suppose only works if the person reads it!

It’s not uncommon. Personally I think it’s a good idea as it stops the interminable wading through billions of emails after a holiday and instead you just get the ones which are still necessary. Quite a few times I’ve responded to stuff in my inbox only to find that the matter has moved on or they’ve asked someone else.

I said that it would be acceptable in my old workplace -and was surprised at how the poll is going

so it made me think - my workplace was full of various ND and people were therefore encouraged just to be clear about what helps us all be most effective.

not every project had back up quite often people would have to wait for support , but poeple who wait sometimes find their own solutions so for some people saying “get back to me when I’m back if you still need this” was by far the best. They could then junk all incoming mail and have a clear start when they got back from holiday.

we would all share the tricks we used to make our lives better and help us work to our best - not everyone did the same thing but it all seemed to work really well.

Imagine being able to just delete all the email that arrived while you were away. Pretend it never existed.. That's madness TBH, what if it was something important.

If I got that bounce back I'd do as everyone else is saying and immediately resend it on a delayed send though.

One of my colleagues OOO is "Find someone else" 😂 always cracks me up.

Presumably the person has such a "non job" that they never receive correspondence from other business computers (like banks) with important attachments etc.

Excuse me ignorance… how do you do that? In outlook? Would be so useful.

That sounds eminently more reasonable than the OP scenario, still not how i would do it....

We're actually required to ask people to do that now in my workplace, but the protocol is to say "I'm OOO until x date, please resend this email to y if it needs attention before then, otherwise please resend it to me on my return to the office". It's made everything so much more efficient, urgent stuff gets dealt with in a timely manner, and people who can wait just wait until you're back.

It makes sense if the issue has already been redirected, no need to double check every request is still outstanding.

A generic internal email is not the same as a client/vendor email, and 'sadly' you'll need to check which is which (if one is in receipt of the latter), or you're not doing your job...

In my workplace, we're supposed to say something like 'I'm out of the office until XX May. If your message needs a response before then, please contact...'

Sometimes, people will say 'I'll pick up my emails when I return on XX May, but it might take me longer than that to reply to everything, so if your message is urgent please contact...'

But nobody just says 'I'm on holiday, so fuck you' which is essentially how I would interpret 'Please resend your message in a fortnight's time'.