One thing I did take the trouble to find out how to do was the 'out of office' email auto-reply. When my SMT took to emailing staff in the evenings and at weekends with requests for this and that, I naively assumed that nobody in their right mind would bother replying to them, only to discover that many of the staff, especially the younger ones, grumbled but then simply did what they were asked.
This idea that staff should be contactable 24/7 is now becoming increasingly commonplace and it's even more frightening that some people accept it. If you haven't done so already, learn how to use auto-reply before it's too late. (There's always one even if the IT nerd denies it)
6 comments:
A lot of these supposedly "urgent" emails are actually faked. What the sender does is compose the email to be sent out to a list of recipients, set the system to send it out at a preset time, and goes home to enjoy his/her evening or weekend.
Which is why, if any of recipients are silly enough to reply to it, (and the sender hasn't covered their tracks), they then get an out-of-the-office message back. Gotcha!
I make it a personal habit to ignore any email marked "sent with high importance". Mainly because they always come from some arrogant prat who thinks they have a right to go to the front of the queue. Not in my lifetime.
Fee, that's stupid. I got a high priority email the other day and opened it immediately. I was very pleased to learn that I had been awarded a $63 billion contract/inheritance/award from a nice gentleman who wanted me to know that he was definately not from Nigeria.
If I'd have delayed sending them my bank details because I ignored the high priority I could have missed out on my money! Luckily for me, I didn't and now I just have to sit back and wait for my cash to arrive then the bank won't be getting confused and calling me to tell me all my money has gone and I'm massively overdrawn.
I never look at my emails when I'm out of the 'office' anyway. In fact I don't often look at them when I'm in the office. If something needed a reply straight away tough shit. My stock eventual response (which I no longer bother giving) is 'I was teaching.'
Meh, the easy way is to not look at a work email account when not at work. It's hardly a skill.
exactly...one email address that is for work use only and that gets looked at during office hours only. simples.
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