Exchange 2013

[Iain.Faulkner]

I think this is one of the oddest requests I've ever had.....

 

Our headteacher would like us to stop all email being sent between certain hours (let's say between 6pm and 7am). Between those hours, if someone writes an email and clicks send then it should be queued until 7am comes around.

 

Does anyone have any ideas? Is this actually possible?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Iain

[Sagima]

Our headmaster came up with that thought over the summer as well.

I told him it wasn't possible (which I think is true) so he suggested to the teaching staff about using outlook's delay send feature but due to some issues with people closing outlook it has been pared down to me sending my manager a list of the top three people who mostly violate it each week. (not a brilliant use of my time or that accurate but we've got it down to only about 200-300 emails being sent during "curfew"

[Iain.Faulkner]

Our headmaster came up with that thought over the summer as well.

I told him it wasn't possible (which I think is true) so he suggested to the teaching staff about using outlook's delay send feature but due to some issues with people closing outlook it has been pared down to me sending my manager a list of the top three people who mostly violate it each week. (not a brilliant use of my time or that accurate but we've got it down to only about 200-300 emails being sent during "curfew"

 

 

I think you're right, that it's not possible. We did look at stopping the transport service each night on a scheduled task, but it's not a particularly good solution I don't think.

 

Thanks for coming back to me :-)

[Michael]

It's not possible, but I think with later/newer versions of Android and possibly iOS you can specify what hour(s) you'd like to receive notifications, so it doesn't ping at you come midnight for example.

[ozydave]

I thought this was a barking mad idea at first. But then it would stop my uses clogging up the email server with EasyJet and Amazon emails. Heaven forbid they would have to use their own personal email

[AJWhite1970]

I think there must have been an article in The Guardian or TES recently about this as I had a request last week to bring in a "work life/well being" period after a teacher's partners school tried to bring it in. The polite answer was no but I did suggest if staff wanted they could use "options" and "Delay Delivery".

 

Not something I'd turn on even if it was feasible, it would cause chaos on snow days, emergencies, over night alarms etc

[Areku]

Off top of my head but couldnt you schedule a script that modifys the servers send/recieve connectors? then another one to enable them?

[MatthewL]

A number of companies have brought similar rules in to let people have a work/life balance so there must be a way of doing it.

[Iain.Faulkner]

Off top of my head but couldnt you schedule a script that modifys the servers send/recieve connectors? then another one to enable them?

 

I think you're right, this is what we've looked at doing but it would be a "no email for anyone" (I suspect they'll want it still available for certain people such as the safeguarding person).

 

I think all you'd achieve is that email would go "underground" and people would use their personal addresses instead. This doesn't solve the actual issue, I think the school need to look at how the school works.

[Michael]

In Android world, it's called 'Do not Disturb' which comes with Lollipop or Android 5+ but I suspect there are probably Apps you can download for earlier Android editions.

 

Apple's is also called 'Do not Disturb' and a 'how to' guide here

 

Looking at the screenshots and the date the article was published, this is probably an iOS8 and iOS9 feature, but it doesn't specify the iOS version in the article. Hope this helps!