Out of office, out of mind

Everyone complains about the tsunami of endless communication; few of us ever get to do anything about it.

Me? I have always been a great believer in switching devices off for some peace but, like most folk, I still check my emails whilst on holiday. So kudos to Daimler, maker of Mercedes Benz cars and trucks, for coming up with an initiative so smart I can’t believe no one has thought of it before.

Employees of the German industrial behemoth who go on holiday are now allowed to setup their out-of-office response on these lines:

“I am on vacation. I cannot read your email. Your email is being deleted. Please contact Hans or Monika if it’s really important, or resend the email after I’m back in the office. Danke Schoen.”

How fantastic is that? Apparently recipients of such replies don’t get upset, but they do get jealous.

You can read more about it here.

What I like best about this idea, apart from its clean and practical simplicity, is that it shows that massive corporations can, and in this case do, care about their humans.

Sometimes respite from digital content helps create more contented employees.