Five ways we are changing the way we use email

This morning I received an out of office auto-reply from someone on email that went a bit like this:

"Thanks for your email. I am busy in meetings today so might not be able to get right back to you...."

This is a rising trend that I'm noticing - to warn people that you don't sit on email all day so may not be able to respond quicker than, say, a business day. But since when was Email the same as IM? Is it right to tell senders that they should expect a slow response on a system that was never meant to be 'live'. As a consultant with clients and as an employer with a business to run, I think this is a bit strange. 

But even though my gut reaction was negative, I have myself toyed with the idea of training my inbox in similar ways. Tell people better ways to get hold of you and you might win the battle of email overload.

So I asked Twitter the question so that I could put my mind to rest: Is it ok to set an out of office autoreply email for when you're just busy?

The responses were enlightening.

At the moment of writing this post I have received precisely 50 responses via Twitter.

• 19 said yes, they would set an out of office when busy
• 31 said no, they would not

In other words, based on my sample of mainly PR, marketing and media professionals, 62% would consider setting an email out of office autoreply for when you are busy as unacceptible. 38% consider it acceptible.

Looking into the actual responses, the feedback is really interesting. Here is a sample:

• From @sheilaparry: definitely not OK. That's just lazy ...
• From @katehughes: If you are working exclusively on one project and cannot respond, then ok. Otherwise no.
• From @lexlacey: It's better than just ignoring emails when you're really busy
• From @brittneybean: if you really need something, you should ring not email. people are WAY to impatient now
• From @giless: not ok. Just dont reply!
• From @twocubedconsult: I vote "no". If emailers are in need of an immediate reply, they should make a phone call!

So in summary, what are some of the ways we are changing the way we use email? Here are some of my ideas:

1. IM: We expect live responses online now, mainly because of the way we have become accustomed to using instant messenger except many people it seems do not treat email like IM and prefer to wait until they are ready to respond. Result = friction
2. Social: We have our own idea of etiquettette and expect others to understand how we use email, like  on Twitter where everything is open and people pick up fast. Except email is closed, it's not like Twitter. We can't learn from each other openly. Everyone uses it differently and we still don't realise that
   
3. Mobile: We are using mobile email more, but we think that means we always read everything
   
4. Spam: We invite correspondence from certain people, like a business prospect, a journalist / PR person, a possible employer / candidate, but in the age of the lazyweb we attract all sorts of spam which renders our full to bursting inboxes useless
5. Rules: We are all becoming adept at using rules in our inboxes to snaffle away good and bad things and process information faster, whether it's Microsoft folders, Gmail stars, or whatever AOL does. But abusing rules is like hiding your bills. You just don't see what's important as quick as you should - it doesn't mean it's not there.
   

Comments

[Iandelaney]

I remember the transition between email and phone calls as the primary contact method in business. And what bloody relief that was!

Sorry, the whole point of email is that it is asynchronous. You deal with it when it is convenient to you. And *you* get to prioritise what is and is not important, rather than your caller. There are certain rules of courtesy behind that - probably not more than 24 hours if there's money potentially involved.

Imagine if every email you received was a phone conversation. When would anything else happen?

I am sounding very Victor Meldrew now and so shall shut up.

[Kate Hughes]

Hi Drew

Interesting topic. Can I add to my response above? Having worked at both a PR agency and in house, I'd say that setting out of office when one is busy isn't great client management. My former boss would never allow it, wanting to to reassure our clients that we were available at any moment. Now I'm on the other side (being the client) I have to admit I would probably feel a bit disgruntled if someone working on our account set the out of office message just for being busy. If you're the client, you want to feel like your agency's most important client - even if that's not true! Great post though - it got me thinking. :)

Thanks

Kate Hughes

[Toby Cummins]

I think the main problem with people using their out of office in this way is that it leads to a massive ambivalence towards what your OoO actually says. I wrote about it here (shameless plug: http://toyboxstudio.posterous.com/the-death-of-downtime) - I've seen your out of office but I am too busy to read it and therefore my first reaction is to either a) call you anyway to check if it could possibly be true that you are actually really out of the office or b) move straight to pestering the next appropriate colleague who may not be able to help quicker than my return anyway. Especially if I am not actually "Out of the Office" but away from my desk in meetings for a few hours.

I try to get round this slightly by doing the very unlawyery thing of writing jokes in my out of office. Once people know this after a while they start to read them (RoI on an OoO, who knew?) and that in turn helps because they know how to deal with the cataclysmic fact that you're not there for a day or two. My last one, which was admittedly over Christmas giving a little more licence, was:

"Hi – I'm away from the office carrying out important goose fattening duties.

I'm back on 29 December.

I’ll have my phone with me, so if it really is a matter of (business) life and death, stay calm, send a text and I'll get back to you when I can. Yule (sic/hic) be competing with the sprouts though...

No point emailing xxxxx.xxxx@xx.com as we've left no one behind. We couldn't really, could we, it's Christmas.

Many thanks,

Toby Cummins Legal Counsel - Customer, Marketing and IP
xxxxxxxx Limited

Your email has not be forwarded"

I think that the main solution to the problem, given that behaviour is only ever going to accelerate and intensify, is that Microsoft should develop some alternatives in the next release of Outlook. For instance, how about:

Away in Meetings for an Hour or Two Assistant?
Nipped for a Sandwich Assistant?
Pester a Colleague Assistant?
Discussing Glee at the Water Cooler Assistant?

or maybe even:

Genuinely Out of Office Assistant?

A sad state of affairs really. Right, I'm off to get some breakfast. Worth an OoO?