Out of sight, out of mind - the out of office email

AUGUST is the beginning of the middle age of summer. 

It’s all downhill from here. As school children we sensed it. The school holidays were more than half over. Shop windows, which used to have displays of buckets and spades, now featured dull grey slacks and shop signs that looked like blackboards. The rest of the summer melted away in a series of TV milestones — the All-Ireland semi-final, the Dublin Horse Show with that big wall thing, and the Rose of Tralee.

It is also the month of the out of office reply. Send an email now to a large group of people and watch your computer hum with all the instantaneous replies from people saying “Nope”/“Not interested”/“Not my problem” — it’s an email equivalent of “talk to the hand”.