Work Emails During your Holiday Away

[ScoobyDoes]

I'm just about to head off for a few days R&R and am setting in place, for the first time, a filter that all new business emails arriving from tonight will be deleted until I get back to the office later next week.

I kinda figured that if i knew emails would be waiting for me upon my return, I couldn't rest/relax and on the odd moment I was bored or lazing around the pool I may have a sly look into my emails with the possibility of destroying either the next hour or the whole day.

It seems to be an increasing trend, certainly for some major companies in Europe, but not something I've seen here yet so I'm wondering if you practise it or know a company/person that does?

Changing the world, one email at a time

[Fortan]

I'm just about to head off for a few days R&R and am setting in place, for the first time, a filter that all new business emails arriving from tonight will be deleted until I get back to the office later next week.

I kinda figured that if i knew emails would be waiting for me upon my return, I couldn't rest/relax and on the odd moment I was bored or lazing around the pool I may have a sly look into my emails with the possibility of destroying either the next hour or the whole day.

It seems to be an increasing trend, certainly for some major companies in Europe, but not something I've seen here yet so I'm wondering if you practise it or know a company/person that does?

Changing the world, one email at a time

Not implemented where I work. I have a private smart phone and a work BB. I just leave the work BB at home, problem sorted.

[the lynx]

Deleted?! Sounds a little extreme, don't you think?

Can't you just remove e-mail access during your holidays?

[ScoobyDoes]

Deleted?! Sounds a little extreme, don't you think?

Can't you just remove e-mail access during your holidays?

Defeats the purpose.....I know they are still waiting for me when I get back.

If there is anything urgent most people know my mobile number. My auto-responder tells people to either forward their request to my assistant or get in touch with me later next week. In theory I should come back to only work that actually needs done and not spend hours reading rubbish and sorting stuff out.

[Mi Amigo]

It's an interesting concept (and tempting); I remember a story on the BBC about this recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23547802

I recently had to wade through over 2000 emails after returning from holiday - and this was in spite of having dived in several times while I was away to do a clean-up. The idea of having emails auto-delete is appealing, although it might be better to leave the ones where your name is in the 'To' field and just delete everything else.

[nakatago]

It's an interesting concept (and tempting); I remember a story on the BBC about this recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23547802

I recently had to wade through over 2000 emails after returning from holiday - and this was in spite of having dived in several times while I was away to do a clean-up. The idea of having emails auto-delete is appealing, although it might be better to leave the ones where your name is in the 'To' field and just delete everything else.

I was about to point out using a more discerning filter. Heck, I got filters active even if I'm not on holiday.

[ScoobyDoes]

Yeah, I read the BBC one after reading another posted on LinkedIn, which the BBC actually referenced in their report - the woman from Microsoft.

Germany is banning out of hour emails where employees even have the option whether to delete them or not. This isn't even holiday time but normal after hours stuff.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... istry.html

Whilst emails are not being deleted automatically, some firms give employees that option.

[Mi Amigo]

I was about to point out using a more discerning filter. Heck, I got filters active even if I'm not on holiday.

Me too, lots of Outlook rules and folders; I would be completely insane by now without them.

[nakatago]

I was about to point out using a more discerning filter. Heck, I got filters active even if I'm not on holiday.

Me too, lots of Outlook rules and folders; I would be completely insane by now without them.

Here's another idea: search folders.

You know how sometimes certain emails can fit in more than one category/folder? Somewhere down the line, you try to look for this email and you end up trawling all your folders which ruins the point of organizing emails into folders in the first place.

By having search folders, emails are organized by labels (or whatever criteria you set up for your filters). This way, an email can fit in multiple folders.

[Mi Amigo]

Germany is banning out of hour emails where employees even have the option whether to delete them or not. This isn't even holiday time but normal after hours stuff.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... istry.html

Whilst emails are not being deleted automatically, some firms give employees that option.

In many ways I like the attitude of the Germans towards things like this. I remember as a young field engineer back in the early 80s, I used to visit a Bosch factory in Darmstadt and (as I was always running on a too-short timescale) I often needed to work late. By about 5.15pm the whole place was deserted (apart from the security guards). Getting pernmission for Der Englander to stay late was sometimes difficult.

The view in that country seems to be that if you have to stay late at the office, your colleagues will consider you incapable of doing your job in the 'normal' allocated time and therefore deficient in some way. Contrast that with the presentee-ism that we see here (and elsewhere) - where people will spend a huge amount of time at the office, although a lot of it will be spent eating breakfast, gossiping, updating FB, etc...

[ScoobyDoes]

I was about to point out using a more discerning filter. Heck, I got filters active even if I'm not on holiday.

Me too, lots of Outlook rules and folders; I would be completely insane by now without them.

I have filters, folders and rules as well but it doesn't change the fact there is a multitude of unread ones that need actioned, either read or deleted.

Anyway, is my trial this week so will see how it goes.



EDIT: Doing the final set-up this evening, I am finding out that the rule to delete the emails works, it puts them in the Deleted Items folder but because there is a 1-Month Retention Policy in my Office365 account I know all my emails will be left in there until I get back. Technically the mails ARE deleted, from the inbox, but they are in the trash Will see how that affects my mood over the next week.

[x9200]

TBH I completely don't get what you are talking about. Hard to believe you really consider deleting the (company?) emails.

Simple solution: before leaving set a password to your mailbox that you will never be able to (quickly) memorize and dump it to a local drive at work.
Your password, free sample: gdh@!@$@#$!jKNKJQAF@!^%@!$&^@*(!*_)77HH<QJKDQKJ%%%___

[the lynx]

TBH I completely don't get what you are talking about. Hard to believe you really consider deleting the (company?) emails.

That's what I thought too!

[nakatago]

Technically the mails ARE deleted, from the inbox, but they are in the trash Will see how that affects my mood over the next week.

It doesn't have an 'empty trash' button? If it does, that should be the first thing you should click when you get back; don't even give yourself the chance to even see the number of emails.

[Strong Eagle]

I've had a standing business email rule for a long time. If I am in the "To" line, it goes into my inbox. If I am in the "cc" line, it goes into my, "Maybe I'll Read This At Some Point in Life, But Then Again, Maybe Not" folder.

People who cc me:

a) Want the people in the "To" line to think that somehow their point of view will carry more weight when cc'ed to me.

b) Think that emailing the known world somehow makes their topic more important.

c) Are trying to drag me into an argument that I want no part of.

I've really not been affected by not reading the "cc" email folder.