Earlier in the semester, we were read a posting of an employee who went away on vacation and left an away message stating that she was out of the office. Her boss emailed her and basically informed her that she would need to respond to messages while away and that her away message was not professional. I was one that was adamant about not having to answer your boss back being that you deserve your full vacation experience. My tune is changing since at work this week, I have been trying to contact several doctors and they all have various away messages. I feel like the boss. Is anyone working around here? With the various away messages however, I think there is a correct way and a wrong way to leave away messages.
In one of the clinician’s away message, it simply stated that “I will be away from 10/5 – 10/15 and will not be responding to emails nor phone calls.” Now that I thought was totally absurd. If I am a social worker or a school counselor for example trying to coordinate care on one of our high risk patients and I got that away message, who would I attempt to contact? In another clinician’s away message, who was away on the same conference, they stated that they would “be away 10/5 – 10/15 and would be responding to urgent emails only. For routine issues that can not wait, please contact Dr. X who is covering my patients at (212) 555-5555.” Now, although this clinician is out the same time as the previous clinician, I believe this away message was handled more professionally. It gave a covering doctor and it made me feel at ease that atleast if something major were to occur that this doctor would read about it if I were to write an email about it.
All doctors are supposed to use the email address provided by the hospital when it comes to sharing the hospital’s patient info. Since my hospital is a teaching hospital, many of the doctors have their med school’s email addresses as well. The hospital’s email is not really convenient, I must admit, especially in the age of smart phones where email can be linked directly to your phones and tablets. The method of reaching these doctors has been emailing their med school email addresses if you wanted a speedy response. This is not the correct way of doing things however. In trying to follow the proper protocol I emailed a doctor at their hospital’s email. My email was answered with an automated response message which stated that “I do not check this email often. If you need me, please contact me at john_doe@medschool’s name.com ” This left me quite confused because if audited the hospital could be fined for a violation of patient information. This doctor could have just had his hospital email forwarded to his medical school’s email address like I am sure many of them do. To put that you do not even check your email was so offsetting in my opinion. In the rise in integrating technology into our structures, we need to learn the “dos and donts” of email. Once viral, things can not be taken back and things are forwarded every day. What messages are we sending to others with these away messages? There is a right way and a wrong way. I think there needs to be an email etiquette 101 course established at each job!
One thing I would like to add in defense to the first away message, “I will be away from 10/5 – 10/15 and will not be responding to emails nor phone calls,” is that when you use the second one providing a doctor and that you will answer urgent e-mails, where do you draw the line of urgency? There may be people taking advantage of the opportunity to contact the other doctor to get a speedy response. Furthermore, I feel if there were a serious issue that the person away with the first away message could still be contacted and wouldn’t be too upset responding. Just trying to be devil’s advocate and play the other side to this.
I work at a college that is working very hard to get faculty and students to use their campus e-mail. The use of institutional e-mail is especially important for organizations that handle private and sensistive information on their servers. Insutution put into place security measures to protect the confidentiality of the information exchanged but once private e-mails are used those protective measures are no longer valid. As important as this is, and as much as my College does to promote the importance, many faculty and staff still continue to use their private e-mail accounts. The only option is to continue to promote and inform faculty and staff of the importance of using their campus e-mail.
In regard to away messages, I agree with your point that there is an appropriate way to write these and I too prefer the latter message you mentioned. My sister recently called a doctor to get some sensititve test information and was informed that the doctor was away for two weeks and no one else could give the test results. I was flabbergatsed by this bit of unprofessionalism. Doctors especially should take speacial measures to provide accessibility to patients, if not to the doctor themselves than to another qualified individual authorized the assist patients with test results and urgent care issues.
I’m surprised that a professional out-of-office message isn’t the norm at most organizations. My agency doesn’t impose it, but my professional judgment says its proper business etiquette to set one up when I plan on being away for a while. It clearly depends on the culture of that organization, and management efforts to get the message across. Certainly, I would want my staff to have a professional out-of-office message as I would expect business to continue as usual.
I agree with the fact that you should set up out-of-office message when you are planning to be away. Like you said, its etiquette. I also find the first message very absurd. It does not only project lack of professionalism but it makes the doctor look like “does he cares about his patients at all?” careless doctor. The way I see a job position is through the lens of commitment and career. A job responsibility should not be limited from 9-5pm or whatever schedule you are supposed to follow. If you really care about your job, that attention should extend in and outside your office schedule. When you are a doctor, I believe you dont have the “luxury” to say “Im out of the office, you illness/injury can wait.” When you were applying to med school you knew the type of job you were going to get into. Alright, to be fair to doctors, and any person, away from their job/office due to any reason… yes, go ahead, we all need a break but let your our-of-the-office message have enough information to guide patients etc. Or worst case scenario, if there no one who cannot take your patient, you can actually set a message by saying, at the very least, “I’ll be away from such and such to such and such period of time. Since I’m way from a computer my messages will be slow. Thank you” or something along those lines. You deal with people, and therefore there is a relationship between the parties involved.