When I saw this post about out-of-the-office auto-replies on the BNET Business Hacks blog, I couldn’t resist chiming in.  It all started with a scathing critique of the technology by PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak.  Said Dvorak:

What's most annoying about AutoReply is that it amounts to spam, since the person is often looking at e-mail anyway and using AutoReply as a cheap screening mechanism.  It's doubly annoying, since each time you e-mail the person you get a note back and the bogus AutoReply. And suddenly, you just get the AutoReply and no response. What happened?  The way I see it, in the online world, you are either in, or you're out. You can't be in sometimes and then suddenly out because you feel like it.  If you're working in technology and are such a big shot that you can travel all the time and don't feel like doing e-mail while traveling, then get someone to answer your e-mail.

In response, Lifehacker ran a poll asking readers whether they used the feature when they were away on vacation or otherwise unable to answer email.  Surprisingly, over a third claimed that they don't set up an AutoReply because they worry about continuously replying to spammers and mailing-lists.

In my line of work, communications, even if you’re checking and responding to e-mail when you’re out of the office, it’s generally expected that you will have that AutoReply up and running anyway.  This is because in a service organization, managers and customers often expect to hear back from you immediately, and if they don’t, they want to know why.  

But I can see Dvorak’s point.  I myself am guilty of putting on the old AutoReply because I’m physically away from my office, and then responding personally to every message I receive that day.  This no doubt confuses the heck out of the people who receive the AutoReply and assume that they should either A) not expect to get the answer they were looking for, or B) contact the person I suggest in the AutoReply for assistance.  Lines of communication become quickly muddled when a colleague and I find ourselves addressing the same issues simultaneously, and it’s all because of my AutoReply.

There has to be a better way to do this.  Maybe we all need to be more specific in the text of our AutoReplies – for instance, if we plan to check e-mail while we’re out, we should say so, and then indicate that if the person doesn’t receive a personal reply within 8 business hours, he should contact the listed backup.  However, I’m not convinced that people read the text of AutoReplies too carefully, so I’m not sure how well this would work.  Any ideas?