It’s shit, isn’t it?

I literally feel sick at the thought of opening my emails when I’ve been off.

Since I changed roles it has improved slightly but I wish it every email sent to me during my leave would disappear into a black hole, never to be seen. Send the mail but schedule the sending …. it’s not hard to do

It as bad as after two week’s leave.

What is better is being able to give two week’s notice…

Yeah, today is my first day back from a couple of weeks scuba diving in the Philippines, and while diving isn’t the most taxing of activities, I have still been active every day, and after a long journey home I am feeling tired and jet lagged so not looking forward to getting back to the grind today.

Since I changed roles it has improved slightly but I wish it every email sent to me during my leave would disappear into a black hole, never to be seen.

On my out of office message I state that if it is important they should contact me again after I return. After two weeks I will probably have about 500 emails in my inbox, most of which are not at all important, I can only skim through and make a quick judgment about which ones I really need to deal with, so it is important to put some responsibility back onto the sender to follow up as well.

I actually like my job and the people there, but I know I’m going back to a busy week so I spent time last night skimming emails, just to take the shine off a week’s leave

It’s compounded by my missus going back today too; She hates her job and she likes to make sure we’re all well aware…

I liked being off with the kids, can’t help feeling like work takes too much of our time and energy sometimes.

I used to work with a guy who deleted everything unread in his return. The thinking was, if it was time critical, it would have been resolved and if it was important, they would chase him later but all the pointless fluff and CCS would be gone.

I enjoy my work so it’s not really much of an issue. The only thing really is that I know I’m going to be really busy going through loads of stuff and catching up.

It’s as shit as returning each week after no leave as well!

I like to make everyone fully aware of the fact that I have just one day of AL to take between start of Jan and end of march. Sick of it, need a break from it.

Anyway, I worked with someone who set his out of office to say “I am off until xx/xx/xx, I will delete all emails on my return. If it’s important, email me on xx/xx/xx.”

I delete emails when i get back after holidays. Have done for nearly 20 years.

Current out of office reads something like:-
“I will be out of office until xx/xx, emails received before then will not be read, anything urgent and/or important contact A, B or C, or my manager, D.
Otherwise, please contact me after my return.”

My manager has the same out of office, as does his boss. And most of my colleagues.

I don’t put any contact details for anyone, as if they are important enough to send me urgent or important requests, they’ll know exactly who A,B,C and D are, and how to find them. And if it’s urgent, at least one of them will be CC’ed on the mail already.

So i get back and put the ~1000 mails a week that i currently get into a folder (called Easter holiday or something) and leave it alone until someone contacts me about an email they sent monday last week.

This was driven by an interesting 3 years i spent as design/development team lead on a major component that was included in all but 2 live projects in the company. So i could quite literally get 500+ emails some days.
A two week holiday would get me 3-4000 emails. Of which about 20 would be warnings about my inbox capacity…

I used to work with a guy who deleted everything unread in his return. The thinking was, if it was time critical, it would have been resolved and if it was important, they would chase him later but all the pointless fluff and CCS would be gone.

I think it is BMW that has a company wide policy of all emails being auto deleted if out of office is on for more that a few days. The business works on the theory that it’s it’s important then it needs to be dealt with whilst you are away. If it’s not important then the sender can contact you when you get back.

FWIW, my catching up consists of having a chat with colleagues to talk about holidays…

So i enjoy my job too.

I never quite understand the mentality of I sent you an email so its now your problem. I tell my team the problem or issue remains with them until the other person has positively acknowledged they will deal with the request, even then they may still have responsibility for chasing.

Like others I skim on return. I find out of office helps, especially for longer periods away, a lot of what I get is urgent not important so will need sorting before I return. That just leaves the monotonous round robin emails some departments seem to send copying in everyone hoping some one will bite or to act as a cover when they say 3 weeks later you were sent an email (usually CCd along with 30,other people).

I’ve realised I’ve taken very little leave since 1st September and still have about 25 days not ‘committed’ !

“I will be out of office until xx/xx, emails received before then will not be read, anything urgent and/or important contact A, B or C, or my manager, D.
Otherwise, please contact me after my return.”

This works for emails where someone is after something from you – but some of my inbox is where I want something from someone else. They’re not going to send it to me again when I’m back.

I never quite understand the mentality of I sent you an email so its now your problem.

I think that’s a lot of the dynamic of work these days though – projects take a long time to complete, so everyone now breaks a project down into ticking off little steps, of “OK, I’ve done my bit, now it’s your problem”. Tbh I wonder whether the emailing back and forth actually *is* a large part of the perceived progress of a lot of projects. That’s why stuff always gets sent on a Friday afternoon – “I need to clear my to do pile and make it someone else’s problem for a few days”

I have setup my email box rules to send anything I’m CC’d on into a “CC emails” folder, and anything I’m on the To line goes to a “To emails” folder. Assuming everyone knows how emails are supposed to work and anything I’m on a To email requires my action, anything CC is for reference only. It makes coming back from holiday so much easier to handle, and even day to day stuff is easier to focus on what really needs my attention or action. I work from the To folder, and the CCs maybe get read at the end of the week, Anyone who’s too stupid to know the To/ CC rules quickly finds out when I don’t reply to them for a week or so. In peak working periods I can be getting 200-300 emails a day and being able to easily filter them at the outset makes my life so much easier. Although if people could stop CC’ing me into any old crap, it would be even better

I never quite understand the mentality of I sent you an email so its now your problem

It’s a syndrome well known to afflict many many people in my place of work:

Slopus-shoulderus

Currently, apparently, no known cure.

This works for emails where someone is after something from you – but some of my inbox is where I want something from someone else. They’re not going to send it to me again when I’m back.

Nah, in that case it’ll appear as part of the email chain in my outbox, even if it’s in a random archive folder. And it’s probably got a follow up flag on it anyway.

(Also sort To/CC, doesn’t everyone?)

I’m reluctant to even take sick leave unless it’s absolutely desperate, projects don’t stop, deadlines don’t extend, lord knows nobody else covers for you while you’re away, so upon your return from being ill you’re suddenly faced with catching up on X number of days work.

Worse yet it when you suspect stress at work is why you’re ill half the time, good old self perpetuating cycle… 🙄

For those that happily delette everything sent whilst on leave, what about those tasks that have been asked for when you’re back up and running – would you expect your management and or other collegaues to remember to chase/remind you as i bet you dont like that either?

I agree broadly with the sentiment that emails are used too much, but throwing the cat out with the bathwater doesn’t help anyone.

Another top tip: Switch to conversation view. It makes it much easier to handle

It’s the worst, emails are the scourge of modern society in my opinion – as covered above, lots of people seem to think sending an email absolves them of all responsibility. I was recently out of the country for 10 days, spent a week working extra hours and putting in extra effort to get caught up before I went, then dreaded opening my emails so did some the night before I was back in the office, and then spent a week catching up again. I’m very much looking forward to jacking it in ASAP and doing a job with no emails.

I’ve had the last 6 weeks off due to ill health. I’m supposed to be back today but woke up in enough pain that I needed to take 60mg of codeine so am giving myself a couple of hours to get past the floaty stage before I log on to work.

I love / hate my job, I think it will take me a week or 2 to get back into it properly. 6 weeks will be at least 50k emails, I’ll scan through for anything sent to me by a few big hitters then ignore the rest, leaving them in situ so the search function can find them later if needed

For those that happily delette everything sent whilst on leave, what about those tasks that have been asked for when you’re back up and running – would you expect your management and or other collegaues to remember to chase/remind you as i bet you dont like that either?

“Delete” is probably overstating it, i just stick them in a folder and ignore them.
If someone wants me to do something, and they send me a mail while i’m on holiday, they can either read my out of office (these things cut both ways, don’t send me a mail and assume i’ll do the work, at least wait for a response, even if it’s a “no”.), or contact me when i’m back.

I’m reluctant to even take sick leave unless it’s absolutely desperate, projects don’t stop, deadlines don’t extend, lord knows nobody else covers for you while you’re away, so upon your return from being ill you’re suddenly faced with catching up on X number of days work.

You have a shit employer who has under resourced your team/dept, or you have an ineffective manager. Or both? If resource is down, it’s the managers job to either push things back, delay deliveries, reduce scope etc.
I’m covering for a colleague on long term sick at the moment, so some of my less urgent tasks are now not being done. At all. Those impacted have been told, discussion is over. Some of those tasks get picked up by *other* colleagues as resource is freed up.
When he came back (25%) his inbox was all but empty, other than those three or four weeks while we reassigned and juggled stuff.

I was off last week. We were wandering around in the Lakes in the rain and it was great.

Started today with a job interview and now I’m at my desk wasting time on here.

I don’t hate my job but there’s enough work for 2 people and I’ve got no chance of getting any help.

I know I’m going back to a busy week so I spent time last night skimming emails, just to take the shine off a week’s leave

It’s compounded by my missus going back today too; She hates her job and she likes to make sure we’re all well aware…

I liked being off with the kids, can’t help feeling like work takes too much of our time and energy sometimes.

Parallel lives – I actually hate my job more than MrsMC hates hers, but i can’t get a word in edgeways.

I have taken four weeks off over summer for the last couple of years which, after about a lifetime of only taking ten days or, max, two weeks, was a huge culture shock. I wasn’t just sleeping or getting drunk from breakfast onwards, but wasn’t pushing myself to the limits doing physical stuff either.

Still, getting back to the everyday grind/BS after that was difficult. I need to read most of the mails that I get, but you can see when some of them are the sort that just need a specialist on the thread for CMA purposes.

Used to do a lot of work in a previous job with ze Germans.

One particular organisation (Damiler Benz commercial engines I think it might have been, or maybe ZF) had a fantastic mandatory out of office policy. Basically

Thank you for your email, I am currently on annual leave. My colleages Hans und Karl will be happy to answer your query if it is urgent. Your email has now been automatically deleted.

Perfect workplace efficiency.

sort by topic, read first and last in the chain, delete everything else in between.

My deleted items doesn’t empty so if I’ve missed something I can get it back, I empty it monthly a month at a time with 3 months buffer in there, so currently has deleted stuff from Nov/Dec/Jan and part of Feb; end of Feb all of Nov can go too. If it’s before then, I assume done or no longer important.

My colleages Hans und Karl will be happy to answer your query if it is urgent

I don’t think I would risk it

I tend to read the last email on each topic. My favorite was about twenty years ago which read ‘please disregard my previous emails John has not died’

I’m reluctant to even take sick leave unless it’s absolutely desperate, projects don’t stop, deadlines don’t extend, lord knows nobody else covers for you while you’re away, so upon your return from being ill you’re suddenly faced with catching up on X number of days work.

You have a shit employer who has under resourced your team/dept, or you have an ineffective manager. Or both? If resource is down, it’s the managers job to either push things back, delay deliveries, reduce scope etc.

Or they know full well that you’re daft enough to do the work of two people so why would they bother hiring another body. What happens to all those unmissable deadlines with no-one covering for you if you had the misfortune to spend an extended period of time in hospital? What if you handed in your notice tomorrow? If a project has a single point of failure, it’s a bad project.

I’m so glad I don’t need email for my job…. I’m far too analogue.

Not worked-worked for a while now… Like ~16 months.

Helped a mate with his house for two months before December which was more just hanging around with a mate than it was work.

Actually looking forward to going back into the workshop in summer.

What happens to all those unmissable deadlines with no-one covering for you if you had the misfortune to spend an extended period of time in hospital?

A few years ago I was in hospital having ablations for atrial fibrillation. They decided to keep me in for a couple of extra days so I phoned my line manager to tell him I would be off work for the extra time, he told me he needed me to come up with plans for how they should cope when I am not there, my reply was even more abrupt than usual “**** off and do your job you useless lazy ****”.

I don’t know where all these idealized workplaces exist that people mention in these types of threads, workplaces where staff get recruited when the workload is too high, where managers work to assist the workforce, even when “looking for a new job” threads come up there seams to be a mythical land where managers read all CV’s and don’t care about direct experience as much as “transferable skills”. Honestly if that is your workplace you don’t know how lucky you are, because that is not the normal working experience for 99.99999% of the population.

I never quite understand the mentality of I sent you an email so its now your problem.

I sent you an email so my back is covered.

I sent you am email so it’s off my desk and I can go on hols.

I sent you a email and somewhere buried in paragraph 19 is the reason why I actually sent you it. Happy hunting.

I sent you an email to share my pain.

I sent you an email because Teams is just so intrusive…

I could go on. I was on leave week before last and have so far dealt with the “exclamation mark” emails and I hope those from very important people. I get about 100 a day. Most of which are distracting from the actual work, let alone any kind of strategic look to the future / view across the team or whatever. I’m increasingly unembarrassed about replying with “sorry I didn’t see your first email.”

I don’t know where all these idealized workplaces exist that people mention in these types of threads, workplaces where staff get recruited when the workload is too high, where managers work to assist the workforce, even when “looking for a new job” threads come up there seams to be a mythical land where managers read all CV’s and don’t care about direct experience as much as “transferable skills”.

It’s probably 75% of the employers i’ve had. Never work in aerospace, they were the worst. Trying to get me to do fulfil a role two grades up from my actual grade, despite refusing me a promotion or payrise, and me being in the bottom 20% of the pay bracket. And continue my existing role.
60% rise to the next job. Which was ALMOST fully resourced, and where it wasn’t, stuff was reprioritised and delayed, with management suport.

Honestly if that is your workplace you don’t know how lucky you are, because that is not the normal working experience for 99.99999% of the population.

Lots of shit employers out there, especially in the USA mark II that the UK is becoming.

I used to set my out of office to be until the day after I was back so I had a day to sort through everything while people thought I was still off. It really helped.

If it’s not arrived as a teams chat or slack message it can’t be important.
Simples.

Lots of shit employers out there, especially in the USA mark II that the UK is becoming.

Over on LinkedIn, you can always tell whether a poster is from the UK or the US. The US ones are all full of BS about “going the extra mile” if you want to have any hope of succeeding, and variations thereof.

There’s a difference between working hard and working an extra 20 hours a week for free. Salaries are considerably higher – I have a friend in Chicago who earns more money than I ever have, she in her own words “waxes vaginas for a living” – but stuff we take for granted like sick pay, paid leave etc etc is rare. There’s the small matter of not having to pay $400 for an asthma inhaler too, healthcare is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US.

I have a friend in Chicago who earns more money than I ever have, she in her own words “waxes vaginas for a living”

Damn my old school careers adviser!