Retire your out-of-office.
An out-of-office reply says: wait until I'm back. A StandIn answers instead: from your actual work, in your words, with your name on it. The waiting was the whole problem, and the auto-reply just made it official.
I am out of the office with limited access to email. I will respond to your message when I return.
Is the Q3 report ready to go out?
The final Q3 report is in the shared drive, it's good to send. Priya's numbers landed this morning.
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Set your dates and brief your StandIn on what's in flight and who decides what while you're gone.
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It answers what it can, in your words, with a source under every answer, and points people to the right person for the rest.
Sarah's StandInSource: Sarah's brief · yesterday 17:00 JST - 3
You come back to a summary instead of a full inbox.
What's the timeline for the rebrand?
That's not in Sarah's work. Marcus owns the rebrand timeline; ask him.
Every reply is clearly labeled as your StandIn, on your behalf, never as you. You choose what it can see and speak about, and everything it said is waiting for your review.