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The out-of-office reply that will change your email for the better

Caitlin Fitzsimmons

When I returned to work after taking most of January off, I didn't have a single email to read or respond to.

It's not that they stopped arriving over the break. The flow slowed over Christmas and new year, but it didn't dry up. There were still hundreds sitting in my inbox on my first day back.

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Why do Americans work so much for so long?

A recent study found Americans work more hours, retire later and take fewer vacation days than workers in other countries.

The trick is that back in December I set an out-of-office reply to inform people I was taking an extended break and would delete everything in my inbox on my return.

One of my former bosses, someone I consider a role model, taught me to do this several years ago. It's based on two principles: replying to emails is not your actual job; and effective email management is partly about managing expectations.

With that in mind, there are three rules I follow to deal with email when I take a holiday.

First, my out-of-office reply states the dates of my absence and my intention to delete emails. Second, I provide the names of co-workers who can help in my absence – I'm not trying to frustrate anyone.

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Most importantly, I delete the Gmail app off my phone so I'm not tempted to look at work emails while I'm away.

A report by the University of South Australia in 2013, titled "Morning, Noon and Night" suggests nearly 23 per cent of full-time workers check work email when they're on annual leave. It's become more prevalent since the rise of web-based email and smartphone apps.

Yet the flipside of the figures is that three out of four people don't check email while they're on leave. It's not an obligation – yet. 

I've never missed anything essential by setting an out-of-office reply like this, but I have definitely preserved my sanity. My holidays are more relaxing, and I don't feel like I'm in mad catch-up mode in my first week back at work.

If anyone has disapproved of my technique, they have never told me. Mostly people say they love it. They either decide to copy it or they admire it but don't feel they can be so bold themselves.

I don't understand the hesitation.

There are very few people for whom email is the actual core job. Perhaps if you work in online customer service or as an executive assistant, for example. But in those cases, it can't really wait until after the holiday so there needs to be someone else covering the job.

For everyone else, email is meant to be a communications tool that assists you in doing your job, but it is not the actual job itself.

I don't know about you, but my time is better spent coming up with creative ideas and proactively setting my own agenda than reacting to what's in my inbox.

Even when you're not on holiday, being super conscientious about email is not always a virtue.

When I was younger, I used to pride myself on being good on email. It went hand in hand with being a tech savvy Gen Xer who is on the cusp of Gen Y.

But I found it too easy to fall into the trap of keeping myself busy all day with email, without being creative or productive with the stuff that counts.

Email replies gave an aura of diligence and efficiency, but I was actually procrastinating.

There's plenty of evidence that shows the detrimental effect of checking email constantly. It dilutes our attention, making it hard to concentrate deeply.

One workplace study from 2002 found it took people 64 seconds to recover their train of thought after an email interruption. Yet 70 per cent of emails were reacted to within six seconds of their arrival, and 85 per cent within 2 minutes.

A separate 2006 study suggested most people estimate they check emails once an hour but actually do so every five minutes.

Research from 2004 found that email eats a quarter of the working day for white collar workers.

Technology can also create barriers between colleagues, if conversations occur over email by default.

I saw Dr Fiona Kerr, a professor in neural and systems complexity at Adelaide University, speak about this at the Commonwealth Bank's Wired for Wonder conference last year.

Dr Kerr says the problem with technology is that it's designed to make us want to use it all the time, but humans are hardwired to interact face to face. She explains there's something called "interpersonal neural synchronisation", which means that when two people talk to each other in person, their brain patterns synchronise, releasing beneficial chemicals in the body and forming new connections in the brain.

In the workplace it means co-workers who interact face-to-face are not only better at collaboration, they're also more creative.

What about people taking advantage of flexible working practices to work from home – as I am doing today, while writing this column?

Dr Kerr says working from home two or three days a week is fine, as long as you are conscious of being physically present and sociable on the other days.

In the meantime, I'm making up for my lack of physical presence by being a little more responsive on technology, whether that be emails, messaging apps or phone calls.

At least I'm responding to new emails, not still trawling through everything sent to me over the past month.

Caitlin Fitzsimmons is a Fairfax Media editor and columnist. She writes a weekly column on the psychology of money and fortnightly on our lives at work. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

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