Send your email again when I get back

[FallOfSloths]

Aibu to think this isn't good enough as an auto reply?

Medium senior person in work, off until Easter.

Sent her an email, and the auto reply says : 'I'll be back after the Easter bank holidays. I won't be replying to anything during this time, so if you expect a response then resend your email when I am back.'

For info, she's just on a 2 week holiday, not very long term absence like sick leave or parental leave etc. My email is about something that needs her input, so I can't ask one of her team.

AIBU to think this is a bit bloody cheeky? I don't need an answer straight away, but would expect to send the email now and get it answered after she returns. I don't really have the time or headspace to diarise when she's in work so I can email her then. Imagine if everyone did this! Surely the whole point of email is to send when it's convenient and the person doesn't have to reply instantly?

I admire her chutzpah. More women need to be like this. It seems to be working for her. Are you at her level?

haha, no. I was away for a week once and got back to about 4,500 emails.
That was when i decided to delete everything.

ETA: tbh my OOO always gave a back-up person (or 6, depending on area of work) to contact in my absence. If people couldn't follow that simple instruction, it's not a me-problem.

My laptop doesn't come on holiday, and my work email is only accessed on my laptop.

Why on earth would I be thinking about emails that may or may not be appearing in my inbox?

You have to exemplify the behaviour that you believe in. No one expects me to answer emails, that's modelled from the CEO downwards.

Totally unprofessional.
Company I worked for had a standard out of office email (dates you were away and who to email if urgent) and people were expected to work through their emails on their return. Rest of the team often fielded calls so that whoever returned could just concentrate on going through their emails.
The only person who would always delete emails on return from holiday (and generally) was the laziest member of the team. Also had a poor work ethic and (fortunately) was eventually made redundant.....
DH only works PT but has to pick up emails as part of his work day when on duty - whilst also fielding phone calls. It's just the way it works and it means he stays in the loop.

This.

Upon her return look back through all emails received whilst off and deal with them

Wouldn't fly in any of the jobs I've ever had! So unprofessional.

If you know they are on holiday, schedule the email for their return.

It's a way for her to ignore her entire inbox when she gets back and then when someone chases her up, she will say "well you didn't send anything after I returned so assumed it was dealt with". But it's shit really and looks totally unprofessional.

We have no ability to schedule send.

If someone names someone on their out of office, it is indeed very quick to forward to them. She's named no one who can chop down the trees while she's off, which is fine, but expecting me to resend rather than for her to go through her emails when she returns is what's annoyed me.

I agree it is a bit of an arrogant response and would get my back up too. I suppose it depends just how senior she is as to whether the sense of her own importance is justified.

I’ve never experienced anyone (male or female) do this before - is this public or private sector?

Yes and you start replying only to find that things have moved on in those two weeks and the email is no longer relevant.

I'm more senior -why?

i used to dedicate my first 2 hours back to going through my in box. Then it was 3 hours. Then it turned into the entire morning.
until one time i answered a mail on the 2nd day back and got a right old rollicking for not answering at 8am on my return.

So i started leaving an ooo that said: contact A for X, B for Y and C for Z.
Otherwise please contact me on [first day back] after 10am.

Then A, B and C prepared a quick handover for any ongoing issues or things that still weren't resolved, and i handled everything that arrived after 10am.

Saved EVERYONE loads of time.

And if you can't schedule an email? put a reminder in your calender.

What email system do you use that means you can't schedule an email? All the ones I've ever used can.

My initial response was YANBU but having read some of the replies I think it does make sense as you then don’t have to go through all your emails when you get back from holiday knowing anything important will be sent to you on your return. In fact they should set up a system whereby you can’t email someone when they’re on holiday, like you get an auto reply before you’ve even sent the email to say don’t bother sending this email as the person isn’t back until x date.

in outlook if they have activated their OOO and you try to mail them after it is active, it tells you as soon as you enter their address.

If I deleted everything on my return, I'd potentially miss quite a lot of important information. Not all emails are asking you to do something or asking for an answer. Some contain updates about projects or procedures that you really need to know. I can only think that people who are able to handle holiday emails like this have a job where important business isn't done via email.

She is managing her own wellbeing so that her two week break isn't undone by people dumping on her by email whilst she is away.

If you want her input then be polite enough to comply with her request.

I manage hundreds of emails a day, I’ve no intention of adding an extra step which actually makes no difference because either way my email will be in their inbox waiting for them when they return whether I send it 3 days before they get back or schedule it for 9.10am on their first day back. If everyone schedules for first day back you just get all of them in one day rather than seeing when the request was initially sent and using that to inform prioritising.

300 emails over a week or 300 scheduled for the Monday you’re back is still 300 emails to deal with.

I don't think it's best practice as things may get missed that way, but not a big deal. Can you schedule it to be resent or just diaries it?

100%.

Im willing to bet that the people behave like this also can't wrap their heads around why some people get paid more than them/what it takes to become a top 1% earner.

Trying to understand why it annoys you so much.

Are you her boss?

If she’s medium senior, are you top senior? If yes, I’m surprised you have time to be annoyed by this.

Is that likely given she’s in a senior role?

Although we all may have different ideas of what senior means.

Her senior does not sound anything like my senior.

edit: unless she's super mega senior in which case she can get away with this ridiculous diva behaviour