Catching up with work emails after annual leave/holiday/sickness etc

This is one thing I won't miss.

How many do you come back to after a break of a week or two (or more) and how do you go through them all?

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

This is one thing I won't miss.

How many do you come back to after a break of a week or two (or more) and how do you go through them all?

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Ask Cardiff City Ticket Office, they got thousands to get through :hehe:

not really a thing in my role. at my last company I had to be able to respond to an email within 2 hours whether I was on holiday or not.
a bit more relaxed at my current place, but I'll usually catch up most days

I hate it. I basically take one of three approaches, none of which is ideal:

1) Avoid it completely by monitoring emails while on holiday. Pros: return to the office is much smoother; I'm not worrying about something going wrong in my absence. Cons: my mind doesn't really get time off; sometimes means I end up worrying about stuff that is happeing, and I will normally lose 30 mins at least each day dealing with stuff.

2) Leave my work phone at home and give my PA a way to contact me in emergencies while I am away; then spend the Monday back trawling through emails and workign out what has actually been done to progress things in my absence. Pros: the first part of the holiday is super relaxing.... Cons) .....but I tend to worry more about what I'm going back to at the end of the holiday. Plus that MOnday back is a ball-ache

3) As above, but I state on my OOO that I may not read emails received while away and then wait for people to chase me for anything that was important when I'm back. Pros: Most relaxing; more stuff progresses while I am out; no awful email trawl on the first day back. Cons: some might consider it to be pretty shabby service; risk that something important gets missed.

Usually 90% of them can be deleted on daily updates etc.

It’s a little easier as copied in responses usually get grouped together in threads so you can delete all but the latest.

Then it looks a lot easier on the eye to get on top of them and back in the loop.

Always put an out of office on with forwarding contact details too.

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Originally Posted by BLUETIT

Ask Cardiff City Ticket Office, they got thousands to get through :hehe:

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Theyve got a separate folder for yours - it halves their workload 😊

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Originally Posted by The Bloop

Theyve got a separate folder for yours - it halves their workload ��

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I text, never email

Delete.

Have my out of office on so apart from last couple of days nothing important should come to me.

Most then are from colleagues who love a good email and enjoy copying in half the office just FYI.

I sort them by subject, so usually you can see the whole conversation thread. You can then prioritise more easily and it avoids answering an email which may have been superceded by a later one.

I get loads through, outstanding jobs, bullshit etc. I just delete the lot. Nothing ever happens. I find that not reading them or answering the phone to managers make work life really simple.

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

This is one thing I won't miss.

How many do you come back to after a break of a week or two (or more) and how do you go through them all?

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Funny you say this. I am off on hols for two weeks as of last Friday. I would come back to a few hundred emails so work quietly behind the scenes during my hols to keep on top of things. Worked for 3+ hours this morning and will do so again a couple more times before I am officially back at work.

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

This is one thing I won't miss.

How many do you come back to after a break of a week or two (or more) and how do you go through them all?

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I’ve just got back from holiday. I deleted my work email account from my phone for the duration and left contact details for 2 members of my team as alternatives if something was urgent. Still came back to a deluge of them but could easily find the important stuff (less than 5%) by talking to my team first.

As I’ve got older I’ve become much more relaxed about this stuff. The work will always get done and eveyone is 100% replaceable so I try to not get wrapped up in self importance.

First thing - clear out the crap. You know the ones I mean.
Secondly, answer the urgent/important ones.
Anything that is a question, answer YES, NO, or 'Can you send me some more details?'.
If it's more than a few days old, answer with 'Has this been sorted?'.
That should do it.

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Originally Posted by Optimistic Nick

I hate it. I basically take one of three approaches, none of which is ideal:

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#2 for me. I'm not brave (or should I say senior) enough for #3!). Also I tell people I'll be away so they know to ask elsewhere. Helps a bit.

Got back on July 11th & finally cleared them last Sunday, I had around 1400 non junk to get through. Typically get around 130/day. As I cover from Japan to America it’s pretty much a constant stream for around 18 hours a day.

When I get back, I park everything in a folder. Start with a clean inbox then work backwards when I get time. Now I’ve got mail on an iPad it’s a lot easier to deal with than firing up a laptop. I can’t see anything on a phone,it’s too small.

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Originally Posted by BLUETIT

I text, never email

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Aren't both words on a screen? What's the difference?

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Originally Posted by Dublinblue

#2 for me. I'm not brave (or should I say senior) enough for #3!). Also I tell people I'll be away so they know to ask elsewhere. Helps a bit.

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I did 1 for the first 10 years of my career. Now I am a bit more senior - if I am away for 2 weeks I try to avoid option 1 and go for 2 or 3. 3 is ballsy: i did it when I took a month of emergency parental leave during lockdown. If its a week I tend to keep on top of emails instead.

And telling people absolutely helps. I also put upcoming annual leave in my email footer so colleagues and clients know I'll be off and that tends to work quite well too.

To be honest the only time I've ever managed to have a proper break from work though is either that glorious week or two between jobs; or when I worked for a bank for a few years and they had a policy of everyone having to take at least a 2 week break where they handed in their laptops, phones and staff passes and were not allowed to be contacted. For many of the people this was a regulatory requirement but they extended it (either deliberately or through ignorance) to people like me, too. And that was great.