Are you allowed to set up an out-of-office message at your company?

Mark posted an interesting comment on my post regarding "Outlook 2007's Out of Office" feature stating that "several companies and government departments that prevent such messages from passing the corporate firewall".

Does your organisation allow the use of Out-of-Office messages and if not why not? Please add a comment if you can add to the following...

There are some excellent guides on the Internet including Ian's "Tips for leaving a good out-of-office message" regarding the benefits of setting a meaningful message.

I've searched the Internet and come up with the following reasons NOT to use an Out-of-Office message...

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School provide the following advice:

"The standard Out-Of-Office is only sent to internal Vlerick people
External users will not receive this message because it will increase the chances of receiving SPAM in the future. If a spammer sends you mail and you automatically reply to it via the Out of Office message, your e-mail address has been validated, and you increase the probability of receiving future SPAM."

This is sensible advice as many spam messages attempt to lure the recipient into validating their email address by replying to messages.

Forrester's Security & Risk Management blog advises:

"A detailed out-of-office message could pose some personal risk to your employee in that if it states they are out for an extended period it is likely that this makes the employee's home a good target for a criminal/burglar..."

As such, we've now recommended that 'out-of-office' messages be very generic in nature along the lines of "I am unable to respond to your email at this time.  If you need assistance, please call XXXXX."

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 08, 2007
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• Anonymous
  July 17, 2007
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