Happened to me a couple weeks ago and I prob looked exactly like that.
My OoO message clearly said “If you need X, Y, or Z, please forward your request to
someoneElse@myorg.com.”Did anyone do that? Nope. So all the things that could and should have been handled while I was out were just waiting for me when I got back.
lol…people.
It’s amazing how things is a 5-alarm emergency in the emails to me (and I have the same OOO setup as you stated) and they decided to wait until I get back to get it resolved, despite me having backup people in place and capable. And they get pissy when I ask why they didn’t reach out to “otherperson@org.org”
When you are capable, you get punished with more stress like this.
Edit: I didn’t shave/trim my beard during my trip, so my beard looks almost exactly like this, lol
And they get pissy when I ask why they didn’t reach out to “otherperson@org.org”
But then they go to your supervisor why you’re not very responsive and how this impacts their productivity… completely ignoring the number of times when you reach out to them and they usually reply that they’re too busy to assist
OoO messages are only for things that are secret. People are innately blind to them.
When you launch Zoom for the first time after a long vacation.
I haven’t shaved yet either, so that is pretty much exactly me today
One of the ways I knew I was burned out from my job was that when I got back from vacation, I felt as bad as I did just before the vacation. No improvement at all. The vacations were fine, but it was like opening a door into the same flood every day.
So here’s a way to long story that is barley relevant but I’m sharing it anyway.
Our office has a bring your own device policy. Great, I have a phone, I can buy the laptop I want, cool.
Now on my laptop I run Linux, have been using it as my only OS for about 15 years now. On windows you can read your email with outlook, you just have to login once and use that authenticator once. On Linux they blocked Thunderbird, because somehow in their logic window is more secure!? Now until today I would just use my phone to get emails and I also had teams on it for basic questions (like when I’m not working but a simple answer can help a coworker out).
Literally today they blocked both email and teams on android (not iPhone) and you can only use it when you install some MS company portal app, where my office gets remote access to my personal phone.
I did not install this (they can’t make you) but now the only way to read email is logging in via web outlook that sucks in Firefox.
So I just set a auto response to all incoming emails, that from now on if you need me you can reach me on teams during work hours or call me.
Not really sure how they (management) are going to respond. I hate email, especially when you have so many obstacles to even receive it.
My work only allows Windows (gov’t), but they allow me to install Vmware Workstation. I have linux running in a VM in fullscreen mode on one monitor, and vanilla windows running Teams/Outlook on another monitor. I do all my real work in Linux (I’ve been a full-time Linux guy for over 20 years now). Since most of my linux work is on a terminal, the performance is acceptable on that front.
That’s how my team looks when I get back from holidays, every time.
My imposter syndrome has been crushed into a fine paste in this job :-)
This is the one use of Conversation View in Outlook for me.
