Would this be acceptable in your workplace?

[olderbutwiser]

I’ve started to receive out of office emails saying “I am out of office until xxx. Please resend your email after that date”.

I may be a dinosaur, but to me it’s unacceptable to put the onus on the sender to resend their email on some random future date. Clearing piled-up emails when I get back to the office is just one of those things you have to factor into your working life.

Votes please:

Perfectly acceptable nowadays, you’re a dinosaur —> You Are Being Unreasonable
It’s completely unacceptable, time for a Meeting Without Coffee —> You Are Not Being Unreasonable

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.........

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

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!

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.

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

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"

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…🤣

It's just a modern way of working as the phone is almost obsolete these days, there are too many emails. Surely if you are the one wanting the work done, the recipient is on leave, then you should be the one to find a solution as the solution is not the person on leave, they are literally not working and you are!

Dreadful, just no. You’ve received the message, now deal with it when you get back like everybody else.

Yes! This is what I do, and then you can see quite clearly what’s been dealt with - without the onus, rather arrogantly, for someone else to repeat sending the email at their end.

Not acceptable to peers, external people or management. Plus people would probably openly comment on how precious and annoying they are being. No one is that busy or important surely!

Ridiculous, I agree.

All the responses saying this is ok sem to assume and e-mail is only ever from one person to one other

What about automated e-mails from services where the bounce back won't be read?

Or what about when send to everyone in my company and get 20 or more bounce backs? am I supposed to sit there and set up a personalised timed re-sends for each one of them?

Why restrict it to when on leave. Delete all first emails without reading them and wait for important emails to be chased up. Set you filter to only permit emails that have the content 'once again' 'as requested previously' 'this is now urgent' etc to get to your in box. This will make us all much more efficient.

No. The OOO message should be informative - eg who else to contact if it can’t wait for your return. And different if it’s long term leave. But otherwise that’s unhelpful.

What I do advise people to do is to add an extra day onto their OOO message, keep it clear on their calendar, and use that first day back to catch up.

Nope. This would not be acceptable.
I work at a university and regularly get emails from students or emails which are sent to the whole department.
The expectation is I'll pick them up when I return.

I can just imagine how outraged students would be at having to resend an email!

Only acceptable in the context that the person is very senior and matters may resolve without their input etc.

Asked my DH and he says this would not be acceptable in his team/company.

The message should be: ‘I am out of the office until X date and will not be screening my emails during this time. If the issue is urgent, please contact Bob or Mike who are overseeing my work/clients/projects in my absence’.

You don’t put the onus on dozens of colleagues to diarise and resend an email which is already sitting in their inbox - the effect will be a) to double the number of emails they have to sort and read and b) just mean their inbox will explode on the day they return…

This.

Just reply saying let me know when you wish emails to restart. It shouldn't up to you to keep a check on when they are away.