Auto Reply: Out of Office

[Paddy]

Have they not heard of 'Auto Reply: Out of Office'?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57314814

"Work has got more stressful over the last year," says Claire Mullaly.

"There's a pressure to check emails, jump on video calls and to be on hand at all hours of the day, and it's become harder to draw a line between work and home life."

Claire, an IT consultant from Northern Ireland, argues the situation facing her and millions of others working from home during the pandemic "isn't sustainable".

[ladymuck]

I genuinely don't understand people who don't know where the 'off' switch is. It's not that hard.

A friend works with some complete nutters who puts meetings in at 7pm because the day time (aka office hours) is too busy and their thought is that everyone is at home so they're available

[_V_]

This is businesses trying to spin that working from home is a terrible idea and is killing you.

Please, people, stop rolling out of bed, having a leisurely morning ritual, and go back to getting up at 5am and commuting for 2 hours to sit at your computer in a noisy, virus ridden building with all the other wage slaves. You know this is better for you, your family and your pocket.

[vetran]

I genuinely don't understand people who don't know where the 'off' switch is. It's not that hard.

A friend works with some complete nutters who puts meetings in at 7pm because the day time (aka office hours) is too busy and their thought is that everyone is at home so they're available

The Americans used to do that so I rescheduled them for 9:30am uk time, it soon stopped.

I have been on calls at 2am UK to the states but that was because they had fecked up globally and it was costing us serious money.

[ladymuck]

The Americans used to do that so I rescheduled them for 9:30am uk time, it soon stopped.

I have been on calls at 2am UK to the states but that was because they had fecked up globally and it was costing us serious money.

There will always be occasions where you have to do a long day or start / finish at a rubbish hour. There is absolutely no reason for that to be the day to day normal mode of operation. There is either something wrong with the assigned workload or your ability to do your job if you have to work excessive hours all day every day.

[vetran]

There will always be occasions where you have to do a long day or start / finish at a rubbish hour. There is absolutely no reason for that to be the day to day normal mode of operation. There is either something wrong with the assigned workload or your ability to do your job if you have to work excessive hours all day every day.

Totally agree and a decent employer makes sure you are compensated which makes continuous abuse less likely.

Same company used to phone me up on holiday because they had carefully planned to make a £100 million turnover business dependant on one man.

[GigiBronz]

This is businesses trying to spin that working from home is a terrible idea and is killing you.

Please, people, stop rolling out of bed, having a leisurely morning ritual, and go back to getting up at 5am and commuting for 2 hours to sit at your computer in a noisy, virus ridden building with all the other wage slaves. You know this is better for you, your family and your pocket.

This is more likely the case, the good old BBC, the hand of the establishment promoting messages to get the stupids out of homes and back in the office. Difficult to herd people when they can ignore your messages over skype.


I wouldn't mind long hours if compensation is accordingly. If you are a consultant you do not care that much about upsetting people, they are upset by default when they see your rate. But you bill double for that timeslot and time for preparation before.
Trouble is most line managers are control freaks and this would not get you very far.

[d000hg]

I genuinely don't understand people who don't know where the 'off' switch is. It's not that hard.

Some people like to use their phone/laptop out of work
Why do you need to turn it off, you just don't read the emails. Lots of people don't read their emails during the day either!

[ladymuck]

Some people like to use their phone/laptop out of work
Why do you need to turn it off, you just don't read the emails. Lots of people don't read their emails during the day either!

I was thinking of off as a concept rather than a literal one

Even when ClientCo don't provide devices for me to work on, I will configure a different profile on my laptop to separate their work from mine so there is still an 'off' element when I'm done working for the day. I don't tend to use my mobile for client work at all, other than using authentication apps. Those that take a work issued device and use it for personal use need to think about configuring it properly to suppress notifications outside of working hours. It's not difficult, it's laziness.

Anyway, I agree with _V_ and GB, the article is a 'nudge' to make people think about going back to the office.

[SueEllen]

There will always be occasions where you have to do a long day or start / finish at a rubbish hour. There is absolutely no reason for that to be the day to day normal mode of operation. There is either something wrong with the assigned workload or your ability to do your job if you have to work excessive hours all day every day.

Yep.

A few years ago due to project deadlines I had about a month where meetings would have to start at between 7-8am or finish at 7pm.

The client company weren't happy with staff and contractors doing this so made it crystal clear that we should only do it if we really had to and ensure that junior staff weren't involved in these calls.