All Good Things Must Come To an End

Before I left for Big Society's Annual Meeting, I turned on the auto-reply function of my work-designated email account.

And when I returned from Big Society's Annual Meeting, the school was closed for the public holiday, so I simply left the auto-reply function on.

Thus, any email sent to me over the last ten days has been sent an automatic response indicating that I would not access my email account until Monday November 29.

Can I just say that it has been wonderful to be able to selectively respond to emails?

Important emails from various contacts were handled immediately, as were serious emails from colleagues.

But silly emails from silly students were simply left sitting in the Inbox.

That's right.

All requests for me to repeat my written instructions (which were also posted on the course website) went unanswered. All emails pleading for an extension on the research paper due later this week were left aside. And all emails asking for guidance that was provided in class or via earlier emails or in the syllabus were simply ignored.

Alas, the time has now come to turn this wonderful feature off.

But in just three weeks, I'll be turning it back on for the winter break...