To ask my work to put an out of office message on my emails.

[midnightglow29]

I have never experienced this before, so I would appreciate everyone's experience with this. I have asked my work how I can set an out of office message for when I am on annual leave (please note it's a system I can not access to do this myself, and its a work email that is addressed to me only). The response was that we don't set an out of office message on our emails. So I am finding I am getting multiple emails from people with follow-up for responses when I return from work, and I have to start my emails apologising for the delay due to annual leave. Has anyone experienced this? AIBU to have requested this? I have had this with previous employers, so I have not come across this before. Also to note I don't work full time, and I am not allowed to set this or put this in my email signature to outline my working days.

Random. Why don't you have access to set an OOO?

Anyway. An OOO works for the benefit of the sender primarily and manages expectations. Maybe remind them of that. People are requesting urgent action that can't be delivered so the OOO sets expectations and provides other options.

Very peculiar behaviour

Why can't you set it yourself? I've never heard of that before. Is it outlook or another system?

It just makes you look unprofessional when they don't receive a timely reply with no explanation as to why. Is it a UK company? I know American work culture is different and can be an expectation to pick up emails when on holiday.

Strange that they want their customers feel like they need to chase replies…I’d say it is in the benefit of the customer to know ‘I’m OOO, if your enquiry is urgent please contact XY’

Very bizarre.

It inconveniences people e-mailing you as they assume without an OOO that you're around and will be replying within a decent time-frame. Leaves them thinking you're not bothering to reply. And means they don't go seek the info they need elsewhere while they're waiting for your reply. And in some cases, would leave staff feeling pressured to reply to e-mails on leave.

So, absolutely not BU to request it. And it's very odd that they won't allow it.

I would play by their rules, but when I go away simply do not look at the inbox whatsoever. When you get back, do what you can within reason to respond to e-mails, but don't break your back doing extra hours to get through them all.

Does anyone monitor your inbox outside of your working hours? I’m part time and several of my colleagues can access my inbox to keep an eye on what’s coming in and respond to anything urgent.

Do they mean they won't set it for you and you just need to do it yourself? Or do they mean you aren't allowed to have one - if so that's strange.

I've set up many different email servers, and never seen one without the ability to auto respond, so I think the issue may be they don't know how to do it.

Do you have webmail access to your email account, if so I would have a dig-about and see if you can find the option.

Just to clarify.It's not a normal email system, I tried to set it myself, but it needed administrative permissions. When I asked for this to set it up, I was told we don't set up an out of office. No one has this. ( Please note it can be done if I have the right permissions). And yes, it's my email only no one else has access.

Also to note I don't work full time, and I am not allowed to set this or put this in my email signature to outline my working days.

Could you add it to the text of your emails (using copy and paste). "I look forward to hearing from you. My working days are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so please contact Joe Bloggs [email] if you need an urgent reply."

Are they trying to bully you into checking and replying to emails while you’re on leave?

Sounds like a company I wouldn’t want to work for or do business with. Very unprofessional.

Bizarre, you are not actually a.lowed to put out of office replies on? Do they actually want you to be checking and rep,yi g to emails when you are on leave? If so they are a shit employer.

Very odd approach

Depending on the nature of your work, is it feasible to tell regular contacts in advance that you'll be on annual leave?

Edited to delete useless comment.

One of the few things I like about Outlook, and possibly this is set up in other systems too, is that once you put someone's e-mail address into the "To" line, you can see any Automatic reply which has been set, thus enabling you to decide whether to write now, later or to someone else. Makes things much more efficient for everyone, unless, of course, you're being expected to check e-mails when you're not working, and that's something that needs to be addressed.

Yes, I love that feature too!

OP, what do your managers say when you tell them that people writing to you will think that they are being ignored/that you are not doing your job properly?

Are the emails from internal or external people? If external, are these customers or clients whose opinions are valued by the organisation?

When I was unexpectedly off sick recently, I set this up so colleagues and customers would know not to chase me. I did it from home (outlook).

I find it really odd your company would accept customers potentially thinking the response time to be unacceptable and end up going elsewhere!

OP this sounds like a remarkably unprofessional company.

Is it clients who are emailing you?

What do you use to access your email - is it Outlook?

So unprofessional

Add future leave dates to your signature and forget about it?

If they won't allow an ooo or a signature advising of absences, ask if you can have a shared mailbox to work from and others to access and cover while you are away?

so instead of emailing [email protected] they email [email protected] and you and the person who arranges to loan squirrels out to people when you're not there both use that email address for your work, and have a subfolder that you just dump yours into as it arrives.

If they have blocked setting OOO for both internal and external emails then that does seem rather OOT. Some companies block sending OOO to external emails due to security concerns - if attackers can verify someone is off, they are more likely to pretend to be them to attack someone else in the company.

If it's your company policy to not send OOO at all, then I suggest you keep feeding back the negative experience for people emailing you because of the delays and lack of response.

Are you able to auto-forward your emails to a colleague instead? It sounds utterly bizarre that you need admin rights to put an OOO on. What does everyone do when they are on leave?

She’s said she can’t state in her signature that she works part time, so I’d be surprised if they’d let her put leave dates into it.

Is it possible that the cause of them not wanting to do it is some kind of system limitations (or IT staff limitations) - e.g. they don't know how to make it so you can set it yourself, and they either don't know how to set it for you or don't want the overhead of doing it for every member of staff when they go on leave?

OP, I don't suppose you know the name of the email system your work uses?