Sensible rules for Out-of-Office messages

If you are not able to read your email for a period, you can set an Out-of-Office reply to go to any mail that you get.

To do this, use the Options button in webmail, or the Tools menu in desktop email.

Out-of-Office replies go to all messages you receive, whether they originate inside the University or elsewhere.

If you are going to be away from home, it makes sense not to advertise this fact in your Out-of-Office message. So don't do something like this;

Lucky me, I'm away in Tenerife until the end of the month. See you with a suntan!

Instead be simple and straightforward like this;

Sorry, but I'm not able to read my email at the moment. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If it's urgent, please call XXXXXXXXX.

External Out-of-Office Replies

These are the key issues relating to external out-of-office replies:

Spam

We have made great strides in reducing Spam over the last year or so (the number of spam emails we rejected during August 2007 was over 5 million), but the battle will never be won – Spammers are constantly finding ways to get around any defence we create. Currently 80-90% of the mail we receive everyday is identified as Spam and blocked. One of the problems with the external out-of-office reply is that it answers any spam messages that get through – something we should never do, because it confirms our email address to the Spammer, and makes it more likely that they will send more.

Sometimes, Spammers masquerade under other people’s email addresses, and in this case we will send our reply to an innocent victim, possibly contributing to the failure of their system by participating in the bombardment of replies which will overload their mail servers.

The Spam dimension of the issue is now greatly reduced, since only a tiny fraction of the Spam sent to you actually gets through our defences, and therefore very few would be the subject of an out-of-office reply.

Security

It can happen that criminals will send messages to an institution so that they can find out who isn’t there. They can then use this information to rob homes or offices. This is a fairly rare occurrence, but we would advise those using out-of-office not to indicate where they will be. Messages should be simple and to the point. We recommend text as follows:

I shall be out of the office until 20th May 2010; if your communication is urgent, please contact A. Colleague by email - A.Colleague@hud.ac.uk or phone ext 1111

Good practice

We would all agree that any communication to the University should receive a proper reply. The use of the external out-of-office message ensures that the enquirer at least knows why a proper reply cannot be sent, but it really has to be seen as second best. It is far better that someone else should be able to deal with the message and respond to the enquirer’s satisfaction. For this reason it is University practice to avoid the use of individual mailboxes for course enquiries, so that a group of people can share responsibility. It is also possible, and simple, to set up a temporary arrangement for another member of staff to check our mailbox when we are away, ensuring that important items are dealt with properly. This is a simple process, set up from within Outlook, which doesn’t involve giving anyone else your password.

That said, the out-of-office does ensure that the enquirer gets a reply, and should perhaps be used in tandem with a cover arrangement.

Messages to online discussion lists

One of the unfortunate aspects of external out-of-office replies is that they go to discussion lists, and if you are a member of any such list you will know that they can be bombarded with such replies, especially in the holiday periods. This problem is less extensive than it once was, because Outlook now sends only one message instead of many to each list, but it still causes some nuisance, and list members should ideally suspend their membership whilst they are away.

Brian Hackett
Head of Computing Services