What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-replies on for a month

Re:What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-repli... by zamalek on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @09:15AM (#6475855)

I while back I set up a rule on my mail server that would effectively OOF respond if people in my company if they didn't CC my manager (indicating that you should CC my manager so that he can triage whatever issue you may need me for). People started coming to me with real issues (instead of the "reflex ask the senior engineer") with valuable evidence (logs, etc.) - they not only needed to convince me to use my time on their work, but my manager as well. Some even found their answers on Google (I was in complete shock). That extra barrier (my manager) was an excellent deterrent for people pawning their work off on to me.

I have since turned it off, but people remain a lot more respectful of my time (I may now be perceived as a dick because of it).

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Re:What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-repli... by spongle on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @09:30AM (#6475945)

You are probably perceived as a dick, as am I these days but it doesn't mean you are wrong. This is an unfortunate side effect of office politics and double-standards.

My particular perception switcher was when people started starting side conversations by forwarding JIRA ticket email notifications to me with comments etc and emails with ticket references in asking questions.

I rejected these with a simple filter [A-Z]{1,3}-[0-9]{1,6} with "write it on the damn ticket, peon" (in slightly friendlier language).

Everything turns up on tickets now and I get 4-5 emails a day compared to 80-100.

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Re:What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-repli... by zamalek on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @10:03AM (#6476185)

> You are probably perceived as a dick

While having a good relationship with your coworkers is an important part of being an employee; I am here to do my work. So if "I am a dick who gets stuff done" so be it :) .

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Re:What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-repli... by spongle on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @10:18AM (#6476301)

Spot on :)

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Re:What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-repli... by archon on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @09:19AM (#6475874)

Unfortunately this requires having a good manager who is willing to take some heat for you. In my experience, managers view their reports as being there to cover for them, not the other way around.

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Re:What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-repli... by tomjen3 on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @09:28AM (#6475933)

I wonder how much real information you missed that way.

Also WTF for being on IRC but not email.

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Re:What I learned from turning my ‘Out of Office’ auto-repli... by dajbelshaw on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @03:50PM (#6478645)

They're fundamentally different forms of communication suited for different purposes?

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