Your out-of-office reply sucks ass.

Most of us have been in a situation where we go on vacation, and while we’re gone, people are trying to reach us (and only us, for some godforsaken reason).

So while we’re gone, they’re sending crap into your email void, and it just sits there piling up until you’re back.

I learned this the hard way a few years ago.

I went on vacation, and when I came back, there were a bunch of emails about various issues that had not made any progress whatsoever.

If those people had received an away message from me telling them where to actually go, or reminding them to submit a ticket or email the team, then someone could have gotten to it sooner, and it could have been done before I got back.

If you’re gone and people try to reach out to you and you don’t give them any backup plan, then that’s on you.

There are 2 parts to getting people to leave you alone on your vacation.

Part 1 is a good out-of-office message.

For the replies that go to you or your team, make sure that the sender knows that you have a fucking team.

It might sound simple, but a lot of people just leave everyone high and dry in terms of information when they’re out.

When I go on vacation, I put an away message in Outlook that says:

“Hi, I’m currently out of the office.
For any issues, please submit a ticket at [service desk link].
Or if you need to reach someone on my team directly, you can reach us at [team distribution list].
Thanks in advance.”

The ticket link comes first, because that is the first line of defense.

People should not be emailing me directly or my team directly for every little thing.

Hell, 70% of the time, it has nothing to do with us.

So go to the fucking service desk first.

And it’s your job to make sure they can get there easily.

If they absolutely need to reach you, there’s a link to contact the rest of your team.

Part 2 is making sure your teammates can actually do your shit while you’re gone.

Hopefully you’ve left good documentation so they can actually do your work.

Now, you’re never going to stop Derek from directly emailing your team for every little thing, but you can mitigate a lot of that trash buildup in your inbox if you let people know where to actually go when you’re not there.

I swear to God it works.

Try it.

Also, don’t check your fucking email on vacation.

If you are someone who loves checking email on vacation, you’re mentally fucked.

BUT I got something for you.

Check out The Sane Tech Worker’s OS below.

It was tailor-made for tech workers who suck at logging off and are on the verge of burning out.

Hope that helps.

Till next time,

Kevin Tejada