You just have to make sure, if you do use a personal away message, that you take into consideration the following:

• You do not want to use an away message on your general e-mail address if your address is easily attainable.  You don’t want to announce you are on vacation leaving your home empty.  Rather state you’ll be away from the computer for a while without providing details.
• Today I received 3 away message autoresponders when I sent out my Weekly E-mail Etiquette Tips that were stating the recipient would be back today.  Right then and there, write yourself a note, post-it or put it in red letters on your calendar by your computer to take down the autoresponder when you get back. Make this one of the first things that you do upon your return.
• Create a message that is brief, includes your return date and when folks can expect to hear back from you.  This helps to avoid Senders from thinking you are intentionally ignoring them.
• Upon your return, make it a priority to respond promptly to waiting messages. You don’t want folks wondering if their messages got lost in the shuffle or make them feel they are not important to you.

Do you use away messages for your personal e-mail address?  If so any other tips you would like to add?

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