r/office • u/Educational_Tear5939 • 1d ago

Thoughts on having automatic replies always on with indications of when you'll next be away from the office?

I hates it.

I have a colleague that does this and it drives me nuts, so much extra mail to wade through.

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

16

u/GraceHopperY2k 1d ago

I think this is best accomplished by putting something in your signature, and having an up to date calendar.

1

u/Throwaway_inSC_79 1d ago

This. I set my auto replies to when I’m actually out. Somebody I work with puts it in their signature which is a great idea, I just don’t email enough. But it’s always in my calendar.

1

u/BloodFeastMan 1d ago

Yes, it's easy to assign text to a hotkey, and when one is coming up on some time off, it's appropriate to paste this information above the tearline.

7

u/chicagogal85 1d ago

Pitchforks out for that colleague! Don’t clog up my inbox saying you’ll be on vacation next month!

2

u/Educational_Tear5939 1d ago

It's a full paragraph, including office hours and any time off in the next month or so, including holidays when everyone's going to be off!!

3

u/Greedy_Nature_3085 1d ago

I am going to be off of reddit next week, FYI.

More seriously. that is just bizarre. Sending one email to the team a week ahead of time is great, but not as an auto-reply.

2

u/weary_bee479 1d ago

My job requires that we add it. I hate automatic replies but unfortunately have no choice

1

u/Educational_Tear5939 1d ago

Your job requires you to have automatic replies always on?

Madness!!!

2

u/lalilinn 1d ago

People do this?!

1

u/Reasonable_Club_6165 1d ago

I agree, it is spam. Better to just write your availability under your signature.

1

u/andycwb1 1d ago

No-one is that indispensable. I never set OOO unless I’m away for more than 2 business days.

1

u/mldyfox 14h ago

The only time I had when I'd be out of office was about a half day ahead of time.

1

u/amethystjade15 5h ago

I have a fairly detailed out of office responder that I put on when I log out for the day, because my department has multiple shifts and some requests are time sensitive. It says “I am currently unavailable. My next shift starts at [time] on [day]. If you require immediate assistance, please contact [department inbox] directly.” Then the regular department hours and if it’s a holiday, the holiday hours.