My office (biglaw) unofficially prohibits OOO messages for attorneys. Even if you are OOO, you are only supposed to put it up if you are truly without Wi-Fi or cell service for an extended time.

I’m surprised at how much people seem to dislike this.
I’m a doctor and when we are attending on the inpatient service we recently started putting up an out of office message that says something like “I am attending on the inpatient service and my replies may be delayed. Please call X if you have an urgent issue.”

We just started doing it in the past year because our emails have proliferated out of control. I get about 200 emails/day, many of which are reply-all emails where I am included on a list and it is not even relevant to me. A lot of this seems to be driven by the fact that much of our admin team WFH, and just shoot out emails non-stop - and then send another 30’ later to ask if we could reply in a timely fashion. We (the doctors) think the non-stop (often silly) emails are to prove they are working when they are WFH. There were far fewer emails before the pandemic.

Believe me, you’d rather the doctor managing your complex inpatient care does not have to break their train of thought every 5-10’ to pull out their phone and congratulate someone on working at the hospital for 15 years or confirm that they are aware that they have a meeting scheduled with an applicant in 2 weeks.

Anonymous wrote:

“I’m out of the office this week and will return your message when I return on Monday.” Except they are not officially on PTO, say they are working remotely, and enter M-W as worked and actually begin their PTO on Thursday. They effectively just threw up a barrier to emails by saying they were out when they were paid to work.

This specific one happens in our org because the person intends to take PTO and then the PTO is vaporized by demands from bosses during the planned PTO time that come in over text and phone.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my entire career…

“I am in trial this week. I will respond your email when the trial is concluded. Please call Xyz if you need immediate assistance.”

“I am in court all day on x date. I will respond to your email the following business day.”

This is not the same thing. These people are OOO and at a place where they won’t have access to email. An automatic OOO is perfectly acceptable in this situation and in any situation where the OOO sender is away from his/her computer for the day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

No, it’s completely prioritizing work. Sometimes you need to devote the appropriate attention to a complex problem and shouldn’t be always diverted to the little pop up mail icon. The fact that you think you need an answer to a question in real time without the ability to wait six hours indicates you’re the one who didn’t plan.

Why is it such a big deal to manage expectations when one is out of the office for a work task (like a trial or all-day meeting) or in the office but completely absorbed in a project of a time-sensitive nature? As long as the message offers a contact for a true emergency, I don't understand why telling someone why they won't get an immediate response is a bad thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

No, it’s completely prioritizing work. Sometimes you need to devote the appropriate attention to a complex problem and shouldn’t be always diverted to the little pop up mail icon. The fact that you think you need an answer to a question in real time without the ability to wait six hours indicates you’re the one who didn’t plan.

I don’t “need” an answer right away, but I am certainly going to roll my eyes and think less of you when I see your response. You are also telling me that your work is more important than anything I could possibly be doing, which is very condescending.

Oh, and you could turn off the incoming email alert if you are so unable to focus on your oh-so-important project. 🤣

You are full of it. Everyone expects their emails to be answered right away or feels justified in escalating to a phone call because “I need the TPS reports right now for the annual report!”. It’s perfectly acceptable to say “I will be in training/in court/in meetings today; please call Jane for urgent issues”. I do agree that the mental health one is bizarre. It’s only in the last 15 years or so that people expect others to be “on” all the time.

Your examples are true out of office scenarios though. The message above was responding to someone turning theirs on when they were simply busy with another project. That’s poor form.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

No, it’s completely prioritizing work. Sometimes you need to devote the appropriate attention to a complex problem and shouldn’t be always diverted to the little pop up mail icon. The fact that you think you need an answer to a question in real time without the ability to wait six hours indicates you’re the one who didn’t plan.

I don’t “need” an answer right away, but I am certainly going to roll my eyes and think less of you when I see your response. You are also telling me that your work is more important than anything I could possibly be doing, which is very condescending.

Oh, and you could turn off the incoming email alert if you are so unable to focus on your oh-so-important project. 🤣

You are full of it. Everyone expects their emails to be answered right away or feels justified in escalating to a phone call because “I need the TPS reports right now for the annual report!”. It’s perfectly acceptable to say “I will be in training/in court/in meetings today; please call Jane for urgent issues”. I do agree that the mental health one is bizarre. It’s only in the last 15 years or so that people expect others to be “on” all the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

No, it’s completely prioritizing work. Sometimes you need to devote the appropriate attention to a complex problem and shouldn’t be always diverted to the little pop up mail icon. The fact that you think you need an answer to a question in real time without the ability to wait six hours indicates you’re the one who didn’t plan.

I don’t “need” an answer right away, but I am certainly going to roll my eyes and think less of you when I see your response. You are also telling me that your work is more important than anything I could possibly be doing, which is very condescending.

Oh, and you could turn off the incoming email alert if you are so unable to focus on your oh-so-important project. 🤣

+1. No one with a true emergency sends an email, at least now without following up with a direct message or phone call. You can turn your email off without announcing to the world that you are working on something soooooo important or having a mental health episode or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

No, it’s completely prioritizing work. Sometimes you need to devote the appropriate attention to a complex problem and shouldn’t be always diverted to the little pop up mail icon. The fact that you think you need an answer to a question in real time without the ability to wait six hours indicates you’re the one who didn’t plan.

I don’t “need” an answer right away, but I am certainly going to roll my eyes and think less of you when I see your response. You are also telling me that your work is more important than anything I could possibly be doing, which is very condescending.

Oh, and you could turn off the incoming email alert if you are so unable to focus on your oh-so-important project. 🤣

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

No, it’s completely prioritizing work. Sometimes you need to devote the appropriate attention to a complex problem and shouldn’t be always diverted to the little pop up mail icon. The fact that you think you need an answer to a question in real time without the ability to wait six hours indicates you’re the one who didn’t plan.

DP but lol no. You tried though. If something is THAT time sensitive (and it rarely actually is), email wouldn't be the first method of communication anyway. Another case of the person setting up the auto response due to their inflated sense of self importance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

No, it’s completely prioritizing work. Sometimes you need to devote the appropriate attention to a complex problem and shouldn’t be always diverted to the little pop up mail icon. The fact that you think you need an answer to a question in real time without the ability to wait six hours indicates you’re the one who didn’t plan.

Anonymous wrote:Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Sorry, that’s not “much more professional.” This just screams, “I’m not very good at prioritizing my work or multitasking.”

I can think of two occasions when I've done this:

1) when I was having significant computer problems and spent most of two days trouble shooting with a tech.
2) when I'm tied up in all day meetings.

Only internally to my immediate team members. And it's much more professional, like "I'm trying to get out the Adams Project by noon, so I'm taking myself off line until then. But call me if you have a true emergency." Larla

Yes, my entire career…

“I am in trial this week. I will respond your email when the trial is concluded. Please call Xyz if you need immediate assistance.”

“I am in court all day on x date. I will respond to your email the following business day.”