Work emails after holiday

[sanogo]

Just curious as to how many emails you would come back to at work after one week on holiday and what do you do about them?

Twice recently I've spoken to two people at work, they don't know each other and work in different buildings and both of them said separately to me that when they come back to work they just delete all of their emails

At first I thought they were joking but then I realised they weren't

The last time I took a week off I came back to seventy emails. The guy that I was talking to said he came back to a couple of hundred. The woman had been to Australia for 3-4 weeks and said she had over a thousand so deleted every single one

In a way it makes sense because it would take days if not longer to read and action them all. I guess if any were important they would chase you up?

After a 3 week holiday, I came back to over 2000 in my inbox.

After sorting, 8 needed action/reply.

You guys who delete the emails, how are you aware if changes have taken place when you’re away? I’ve got around 7 teams across the U.K. and so much change going on, I need to know what’s happening even after leave. I might just be cc’d in but it’s still important info I need to know about. I regularly have hundreds and hundreds but I have usually scanned through in 2-3 days and marked those I need to respond to. I have someone covering for me and she will cover the highlights but mine isn’t the kind of job you can delete emails, in an operational environment like mine you need to keep up to date or you’ll regret it later down the line

I object to your approach too. Because you're working while on leave. Why? If you don't want to not be at work, stay at work.

If you're on leave, be on leave. You're not being paid to work then.

When a colleague was on Mat leave her out of office gave an alternative team email address for people to contact and also stated that as she is on mat leave she will not be responding to the senders email at all because she will mass delete all emails that are sent while she is off 😄

I thought it was brilliant!

I'm on holiday for a week now. I suspect I'll have somewhere in the region of about 200, maybe more.

I’m off for just over a week and when I go back I expect I’ll have about 350. I go through and flag anything that looks like it needs a response - some of it will be generic team/company wide stuff so I’ll read but won’t need to action.

I can’t delete them all as I’m the only person who does my specific job in my team and even though I have an out of office on people will provide project updates etc so I have to know what’s going on!

Mine vary. If I'm on a big project I'll have updates, approval requests, meeting requests for when I'm back, queries to answer, automated updates to tickets raised, new requirements from the funders to assess, problems to investigate, stakeholder concerns to manage. And then all my usual day to day job.

It might be hard to grasp, but everyone's job is different so some people will have more emails to manage than you.

Around 250.
I go throught them all, delete any that need no action and work through the rest. Deleting them would cause big problems, some of them will be from the court and essential documents needed for cases.

Well some context is needed

I have clients. I can’t just simply delete their emails as though they never sent them!

I delete the internal junk. They file and prioritise the ones that actually need to be dealt with / responded to / considered

if there is a shared inbox and everything is forwarded then fine maybe okay to delete if they’ve seen dealt with

I don’t see though why someone should have to chase you up because you chose to delete them. It’s not their problem that their email was sent when you were away. Put an OOO on to say you’re away and you’ll respond when you can when you return.

I got 300 the other week. I was away for a week.

Just got back from mat leave - now that was a lot of emails! luckily my out of office said "I am on mat leave until x date, this email will not be read. Please contact me again after x date if important" - so then no problem deleting all!

6 or 7… thousand.

Only joking, I’m not nearly as important as everyone else on the thread appears to be. I’d usually be dealing with 20-40 after a week off.

So those coming back to 2000 emails would get that number coming in each week if they WERE at work. When do you all get time to do your job if you’re getting that many messages in a typical week or are some perhaps exaggerating?

That is some people's job. Some people are paid for what they know rather than what they do.

Going back tomorrow after a fortnight off. I'm expecting there will be a few hundred.

I'll start with the newest as it's not unusual to find that what was a crisis has now been resolved so I can go through and delete the preceeding emails.

Depends on the job. I used to get only 6 a week. Then 60, now 600. I can't delete any, some have time expired, 100 or so will still need time be actioned. Dh's mail box is full to the limit after a week.

I filter by sender then know which ones I can safely delete and others that I need to return to. We get a daily all-company update that can be deleted, that kind of thing.

About 200, the vast majority get deleted as my out of office is usually paid attention to and anything urgent is forwarded and dealt with. I do like the idea of this though.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28786117.amp

Probably 200, many will be internal for information but require me to read and stay informed. In my OOO I refer any urgent queries to my team or specific person who can deal in my absence. I block out the first day back in my diary to have time to read and catch up.

1,424 after a week.

Law!!

Would depend on your sector.

Mine is Law, I cannot imagine deleting all my holiday emails upon return. Courts and other side solicitors really do not care that you're on holiday.

Just posted about this!

Imagine chucking 2000 odd emails in the trash 🤣

I'd probably have around 500 after a week, but probably 25% are just daily company stuff that can be deleted, then I read and action the others as necessary. Probably takes the whole morning.

I have a colleague who's out of office says he'll delete all emails during his leave period and if still needed when he returns on X date to email again! Seems to work for him.

I disagree. If you are paid an annual salary and it suits you better to work say half an hour on your day off to distribute or delegate work arising while you are away to make your life far less stressful on your return then why not do this. Just because it is something you don't want to do it doesn't follow that it is what works better for others.

I am surprised about people deleting them. I would get about 500 and would have to read each one, respond where needed, and then file it in our electronic filing system adding a note in the system if it is something significant. So coming back from leave is usually pretty awful !

outlook has a “clean up” function which deletes all old messages from a trail and just leaves anything unique or with an attachment.