On Out of Office emails

 August 26, 2024

This summer, I found myself multiple times reading out-of-office emails. Actually, this is not a new phenomenon: it has happened every summer since I started working. Obviously, it also happens outside the summer, but it is far easier to notice it during the summer.

I think the majority of people should not configure an out-of-office replyer.

By recipient

Many people might write to you and receive an out-of-office email if you have set up an out-of-office replayer. Let’s analyze the various personas that might send you emails and whether the out-of-office message makes sense for them.

Colleagues

The most common kind of people that most employees exchange emails with are their colleagues. In this case, the term “colleagues” is used broadly to include everyone working in the same organization as you.

I think colleagues do not need to get notifications that you are out of the office since:

1. They can check your calendar and see you are out of the office.
2. They can easily check who your manager is; therefore, they can contact them directly.
3. Many company groupware software already notify the person while drafting an email that the recipient is out of the office.

Also, I think it is always good behavior to check your recipient’s calendar before sending out urgent emails since they might be working that day but in meetings or engaged in an activity that does not allow them to check or reply to your email.

Customers

Many people, mostly in sales or support, exchange many emails with customers.

There are two different conversations based on the role you are in.

If you are in any role except for sales (especially support), you should probably refrain from conversing with customers from your personally assigned email box. Ticketing systems are already capable of handling people in out-of-office situations, and it is enough that the system is properly set up. Using personally assigned email boxes might seem like a way to streamline customer communication. Still, it is a failing approach that will only make the customers more unhappy in the long term.

If you are in sales, evaluating the situation with more context might make sense since it is a bit more nuanced. Still, it is very unlikely that not setting an out-of-office email will be a real issue. However, you must evaluate your specific situation since you might delay some replies.

Partners

Some people work primarily with partners. Partner relationships are often complex since they are nor customers nor colleagues but something in between.

My thumb rule is that if partners are correctly managed, they have a few reference points within an organization rather than a single reference point. When they need something, they will add two or more people to the email so someone can always react to their request. This behavior happens because, over time, there have already been occasions when people were working but were involved in meetings or activities that did not allow them to reply, and therefore, the partner waited an amount of time they deemed to be “too much.” In fact, unlike colleagues, partners do not have access to your calendar, so they have no idea what your day looks like. However, they know that if they send the email to two or more people, at least one will take care of it. For those reasons, it is often superfluous to send out-of-office emails to partners.

Sales representative

If you have sales representatives who send you emails, they are chasing you to sell you something, so they can easily wait until you return to the office. Sending them an out-of-office email will only allow them to harass you the first day you return to work.

Random people

If a person not in any of the previous categories sends you an email, it is probably unexpected; therefore, they should not expect a prompt reply. In this case, sending an out-of-office email puts you in a situation where you have to reply to them when you return to work, whether you intended to or not.

Some considerations

Having analyzed the various people who can email you while you are out of the office, let’s make some considerations about being out of the office.

Consecutive out-of-office days

In my experience, it is very common for people to take between 5 and 10 consecutive days out of the office. Although there are cases where people take longer out of the office periods, this is not common.

Since those periods are short and, statistically speaking, the emails will arrive spread throughout the period, most of those senders will not notice that their emails have been replied to slower than usual.

Realistic disconnection expectations

Many people say that completely disconnecting during holidays is their goal, but more often than not, by the second day, they are already checking their emails. Surely, there are situations where the person has a very strong will and is able to stick to their initial decision or where technical issues prevent communication, but those are by far the minority of cases.

Feeling of being necessary

This is probably the most challenging fact for many to accept: your organization can survive even if you are unavailable for a few days. It is a failure if the organization can not go forward without a specific member. People can be hit by a bus any day, and if their organization’s survival depends on that person, the organization is doomed. People are important for an organization’s success, but no one should be required for it to function. Also, I would argue that an out-of-office email is useless in such a scenario since it is not the required action to ensure that the organization does not get stuck. Even more, if there really is a person so critical that an organization (or even just a small part of it) stops if they are out of the office, be assured that everyone will know exactly when that person is out of the office without the need to send out-of-office emails.

Risks

Until now, the considerations have mostly been about why out-of-office emails are less valuable than many think.

Still, one could argue that sending out-of-office emails is not a problem, even if they are not valuable. However, out-of-office emails also have a number of risks associated with them that are critical to evaluate before reaching any conclusion on the topic. The source of those risks is that, by setting an out-of-office replayer, you will unconditionally send out-of-office emails and the information included in them to a number of people, some of whom might be ill-intentioned.

Spam

In the unlucky, but yet very probable, event that you receive a spam email while the out-of-office replyer is enabled, the spammer will receive an out-of-office email. This validates your email to the spammer, who will, therefore, continue to send spam to you since they are now sure that the email is valid.

Organizational security

Nowadays, thanks to the progress in IT and AI, it is easy to create scams in which the scammer impersonates a person and acts on their behalf to benefit the scammer. If a scammer receives an out-of-office email from your email, they might decide to impersonate you since they know you will be less responsive for a certain period of time. Also, thanks to the information in the out-of-office email, they can tailor a scam that leverages that information to gain the victims’ trust.

Personal security

I left this in the end because it is a less probable risk, but still, it can make sense to evaluate it. Letting ill-intentioned strangers know that you are out of the office for a week or two might trigger their curiosity to evaluate whether to scam your relatives and friends or locate your assets that might be easier to steal while you are away.

Conclusions

Like with anything else, the important aspect of out-of-office emails is to avoid setting them up without thinking about the consequences. Surely, everyone has their own balance of advantages and disadvantages for out-of-office emails, but it is important to consider all possible ramifications before configuring them. Personally, I think that setting up an out-of-office reply carries more risks than benefits, and most employees should, therefore, abstain from using it.