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This is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary, and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.
Yes, you heard right: most out of office replies are evil.
Out of office replies, often termed "oof" or oof for "out of facility," are those automated replies you get to an email you send someone when they are ... well, out of the office. They'll tell you something like, "I'm out of the office this week, and not checking email" or something along those lines.
Seems like a good idea, right? Helpful, even. And it can be good idea, IF two conditions are met:
1) The out-of-office reply is sent to each sender exactly once, no matter how many times they send email.
2) The out-of-office reply is never sent to mailing lists.
For some corporations, there's an optional third rule: the out-of-office reply is never sent outside the company.
So, where does the evil come in? Certainly when either rules one and two are broken - or even worse, when both are. If rule one is broken, you annoy everyone who might need to send you an email for your eventual return... no mater how many. If rule two is broken, your reply goes out to a list of people whether or not the discussion had anything to do with you. And if BOTH are broken, every message to a mailing list causes your out-of-office message to get sent ... again and again and again ... flooding the mailing list. That's Evil.
But wait, there's more.
You might just have told anyone who drops you an email that you're on a trip and your home is available for burglary.
And...
You've just replied to any SPAM that you receive, thus validating your email address. Prepare to get LOTS more spam.
In general, OOFs are a good idea that, 99% of the time, have gone horribly, horribly wrong. Just say no.
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Article C2368 * June 13, 2005 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
June 18, 2008 1:38 PM
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Geoff: I think that particular aspect of common courtesy
gets lost in the email-overload that often piles up while
people are away from the office. I know once I get an OOF I
*assume* that the person did NOT get the message, and that
it's on me to resent some time after they return.
Leo
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June 23, 2008 5:34 PM
Exchange 2003 SP2 has the functionality to only send internally. We use have that setting enabled. It's located under Global Settings -> Internet Message Formats -> Advanced. Uncheck "Allow out of office responses"
March 6, 2009 3:01 PM
I have never understood why the out of office assistant can't simply only reply to emails that successfully make it through my spam filter. Out of office assistant seems to reply to any and everything.
February 10, 2011 5:37 AM
'Out of office ' evil? Perhaps.
Annoying - certainly.
For some unknown reason my pc sends a random response to people who have e-mailed me telling them I am away until Sept. 1st. I wish I was but what can I do to rid myself og this?
10-Feb-2011
May 14, 2012 3:40 PM
I disagree with Rule One, but have my own personal variation:
Rule 1: It should be arranged that no "Vacation" reply message (you call it an "Out Of Office" message) will ever be sent more often than once in every 24 hours (and the message itself should explicitly say so).
Rationale: People can be forgetful and need reminding, or they may simply wish to check whether you have yet returned (either early or late); thus, provision should always to be made for senders to receive subsequent "Vacation" reminders should they seek them. A significant delay, however, IS most certainly ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY in order to prevent a possible mail loop -- THAT would be most TRULY Evil!!!
I absolutely and heartily agree with Rule Two, but it can be difficult to implement.
Not replying to Spam can be prevented with good Spam filters -- if Spam is filtered out before it reaches your Inbox, it will never be replied to (automatically or otherwise)!
Unix users have a "vacation" command that easily implements my variation of Rule One, (and only replies to messages that entered then Inbox, so Spam filters would be effective); but it leaves Rule Two completely out in the cold. Some other (temporary) "filter" would be necessary to block newsletters.