The End of Out-of-Office?

2012-02-14 10:49:37 by Frank

Lucy Kellaway’s article in the weekend FT coins the term Worliday (work+holiday) . You go on holiday but you still pick up and deal with emails, make a few calls in the morning and head off to the beach for the afternoon. You’re on holiday but not totally off duty. For many self employed people this is nothing new but it seems to be catching on all over. Blame smart phones that sync with work email or the consumerisation of technology where your work mobile is your personal phone. Fewer people seem to bother with the out-of-office setting on their email as the fact that they pick up instant messages and emails would suggest they are still in the virtual office.

Internet access is no longer the excuse it was as almost everywhere has wireless internet broadband and failing that you can access GPRS data on your smart phone (at a price) On a recent trip to Northern Spain my travelling companion’s opening question at every hotel was “You ‘ave  WeeeeeFeeeee?”, (that’s Euro Speak for: “Do you have WiFi” ) and then proceeded to log on to work WebOutlook before even checking out the mini bar!

For the person who truly wants to get away from it all I don’t think you can any longer hide behind out-of-office and your best bet is to make sure that everything on your to-do list is either done or delegated before you go.  Also tell clients and external partners you are away in plenty of time. You could argue that it’s private time and you shouldn’t have to but, for the sake of a courtesy call, you can avoid disruption to your R&R. Then if anyone calls you when you are on the beach you know it’s an emergency or a loose end you left behind.