Saul Kaplan: Unplugged

Out of Office, AutoReply:  Sorry I will be out of the office this week.  In an emergency you can contact……   Away messages bug me.  Away from what?  Aren’t most of us away from our desks all the time?  If we aren’t maybe we should be!  Who doesn’t get emails remotely these days?  I don’t need to know that you are traveling this week.  I assume that you are not sitting at your desk waiting for an email but out at meetings and visiting with customers.  You will get back to me when you can.

OK. If you are on a personal vacation and need to disconnect or overseas and unable to receive emails it makes sense to let people know that you will not be able to respond while you are away.   But most away messages seem to just provide notification that you will not be sitting behind your desktop computer for the next few days.  Come on, we all know perfectly well that you will still receive emails on a remote computer, a laptop, or on a PDA.  Why tell us that you are away.

I find that quick responders are just as responsive when they travel and slow responders are just as slow when they are away.   I suspect many people leave an out of office message to manage expectations because they want the time away from the incessant drumbeat of emails, text messages, and twitter streams.  I understand that.  Sometimes you need to disconnect in order to reconnect.

A few vacation days away recently reminded me of the important perspective gained from disconnecting.  I didn’t leave an away message before leaving and while I left my laptop at home I did bring my iPhone, which allowed me to check important emails and Red Sox scores.  While I could have stayed connected to my Twitter stream on the iPhone I made a conscious decision (alright my wife insisted) that I disconnect cold turkey for the few days I was away.

I enjoyed the respite from the cacophony of an over-connected and always-on life.  I thought a lot about what it means to live in a networked world where communication channels travel wherever you go and filtering becomes an important personal decision.   I am excited by the possibilities created by ubiquitous connectivity and personally experimenting with the right mix of channels and the right balance of being connected and finding time to disconnect.  The capacity to disconnect is important but can’t we come up with a more honest and genuine approach than a lame away message?