Time to save the holiday out-of-office email reply
I am a bit of a fan of the Lucy Kellaway problem column in the Financial Times, but this Wednesday’s one really threw me.
Her view was that using an out-of-office autoreply for your emails while away on holiday was “so 1990s”. These days, she explained, you should check your work emails while on holiday and reply to the most urgent/important.
I couldn’t disagree more.
Holidays are a benefit given to all staff (by law a minimum of 20 days plus bank holidays) so we can have a proper break, and not a breakdown.
I know the lines between work and play are increasingly blurred and I am more than happy to work/play like that. But at least once a year I need a complete break from everythng to do with work.
In fact, don’t we all?
Very few of us in paid employment is so crucial to our business that all will crumble if we disappear for a well-earned break.
I am hugely privileged to work with an excellent team where everyone can cover for others, and the chance to do so is an opportunity to develop skills and experience.
So my out-of-office autoreply policy might be 1990s, but I believe it is sending a good business message, not a bad one.
My campaign to save the out-of-office autoreply starts here.
Sign up to our newsletters
Receive news and guidance on a range of HR issues direct to your inbox
Debi O’Donovan
Editor
Employee Benefits
I agree: there is nothing that cannot either wait, or be dealt with by colleagues equally well – and possibly better when they are not trying to think their way out of holiday mode and back into a work mindset at that moment. I’d love to be indispensable, but delegating and/or working as part of a team has lots of other benefits. Roll on my three weeks of electronic disconnect!
Debi, I couldn’t agree more. I seem to be the only one in the HR management team who switches off the Blackberry and leaves it at home for the duration of all holidays… In my view there is nothing more valuable than a full recharge of your own batteries, both from a mental health perspective and because of the new energy it allows you to bring to the workplace on your return. I’m damn sure my team are glad of the break from my constant badgering as well!
I have not read the column by Lucy, but if what is say is an accurate summary of her column, then I think Lucy is sadly mistaken.
Taking a holiday is a time to relax with family, etc. and not to be checking your email every so often in order to respond to urgent messages-you may as well not take that holiday!
You are setting yourself up for failure and creating the expectation that you are always available and the world revolves around you.
I returned from holiday this week. Whilst away, for the first time, I didn’t check my emails at all (mainly due to my wife’s insistence). The upside was being able to fully disengage from work for the first time in years. The downside was the sense of despair when confronted with a very full inbox on Monday. But, on balance, I think I will do it again.
It seems that the approach to work by Lucy Kellaway and others of a similar mind that are fuelling the unrealistic expectations of instant reply demanded by the modern age. Surely a more productive way is to effectively delegate workload. You are then able to fully recharge and come back more productive. Your colleagues gain wider experience and a greater sense of ‘team’ is achieved as you in turn reciprocate.
No one is irreplaceable, don’t get fooled by thinking only you can do the job well, others can too!