Scheduling Email availability on O365

[CharlesGreig]

Hi, I have been asked to make it so that outside of work hours (or slightly earlier / later) that I disable email for staff and automate a reply explaining 'Staff are only available during the hours of 8-5' or something like that, the message is not important, what I need to understand is, is there a way to facilitate this, ideally with some degree of granularity, so I could have key staff like the site manager / senior team (probably me doh!) still be able to get emails whenever. Also, the emails should still be recieved, just staff unable to get them... I think... I mean, I am open to other ways of achieving this, but generally speaking I want to do it in the most simple manner possible.

 

I come from a GSuite background, but even then, I wouldn't instantly know how to achieve this.

 

While I have your attention, does anyone have a company who can assist them with O365 who are both good and reasonably priced so that I could always fall back on them if I can't figure out a couple of solutions?

 

Thanks

 

Charles

[HPlum78]

My first thought would be a transport rule, don't know if you are going to need a script to enable / disable the rule.

[chaplic]

Hi Charles

 

There's nothing build into the product to do this, and what you're asking is to hobble the environment for X hours - as many have discovered, this is quite easy, unintentionally ;-)

 

A script that reads a group to get members, does something to hobble it (Transport rule perhaps or a conditional access type thing) and then another script that runs x hours later to reverse it would do the job, needs somewhere to run and perhaps a bit of reporting because sods law the re-enable won't work

 

If you are ipswich based and this is for a school, I'm happy to put a little bit of time into the code

[Ditto]

Hi, I have been asked to make it so that outside of work hours (or slightly earlier / later) that I disable email for staff and automate a reply explaining 'Staff are only available during the hours of 8-5' or something like that, the message is not important, what I need to understand is, is there a way to facilitate this, ideally with some degree of granularity, so I could have key staff like the site manager / senior team (probably me doh!) still be able to get emails whenever. Also, the emails should still be recieved, just staff unable to get them... I think... I mean, I am open to other ways of achieving this, but generally speaking I want to do it in the most simple manner possible.

 

I come from a GSuite background, but even then, I wouldn't instantly know how to achieve this.

 

While I have your attention, does anyone have a company who can assist them with O365 who are both good and reasonably priced so that I could always fall back on them if I can't figure out a couple of solutions?

 

Thanks

 

Charles

Sometimes technology is not the best way to tackle a requirement. If the SLT want to implement this staff rule, then they should do so through staff management policies. I'm pretty confident even if you find a way, you'll end up getting the flak even though it is not a IT policy.

[Ditto]

Realising you perhaps are wanting a sort of 'Out of office/Publishing Working hours etc.', I still think trying to do so this way isn't the best.

[synaesthesia]

Yes, as above this has been brought up a few times and the consensus is simple; it's a bad idea. Communication is typically bad enough, and this bazooka-for-a-fly approach seems to have come from someone misunderstanding a recommendation and that spreading like chinese whispers. Emergencies, those things that just pop into your brain at 5 to midnight, the fact that email isn't just email (calendars, workflows, resources, file storage etc) all adds to the list of things that make this a terrible idea.

"But emergencies should be called, not emailed!?" - Yes, but you also need a record of things in writing.

Pro and con it for your SLT and make sure they understand just how silly it is.

Lots of ways you can help; policies that say something like after X oclock you are under NO obligation to check your email, don't have work email on your personal phones, staff wellbeing policies etc to help people maintain the work/life balance.

[FishCustard]

Pro and con it for your SLT and make sure they understand just how silly it is.

Lots of ways you can help; policies that say something like after X oclock you are under NO obligation to check your email, don't have work email on your personal phones, staff wellbeing policies etc to help people maintain the work/life balance.

 

Agreed. The idea you're being asked to implement is stupid.

[elsiegee40]

This is best addressed by policies approved by the governors and perhaps an addition to the school’s standard signature block so the policy is widely communicated.

 

Something like “This school values staff wellbeing; staff only guarantee to be available during their contractual hours” (or similar)

 

Maybe an automated out of office could be set for all staff reiterating this, but it’s a blunt instrument especially where part-timers and TTO staff is concerned.

 

Attempting to delay delivery or prevent send is futile. (It would also be all your fault when Ofsted or some other crisis happens and it couldn’t be turned off easily or your crystal ball failed to predict it)

Edited September 12, 2019 by elsiegee40

[Tefters]

I was asked this about a year ago due to “pressure staff were feeling”.

 

I laughed in the SLT face and explained how this is a work/life time management issue not an IT issue.

 

A 10 line policy was then written and implemented on “well being and communication”.

 

This is no different from children being on social media 24/7 except they are bigger children!

[RobD]

I'm not sure about educational licencing but with business E3 you can raise as many support calls to MS as you like around 365. Before you engage with a 3rd party give it a whirl.

[jthompson]

The other issue with having a blanket auto-response is that it'll turn your staff addresses into spam magnets. Auto-replies and out-of-office notices should ideally only go to established contacts. I'm not a fan of auto-replies from p/t staff telling what their working days are. Put it in the signature, perhaps.

 

In support of the argument against having an email night mode, I can't think of any other organisation that uses one. It's e-mail, not instant messaging. People forget that, I think.

Edited September 12, 2019 by jthompson

[CharlesGreig]

I am absolutely on board with this being a policy rather than a technical issue, I just thought I would do some due diligence before feeding back to the Principal who asked for it, I have already had to say no to a bunch of things that are a policy rather than tech issue and I don't want to seem like I have come into a new role and poo-poo'd everything, but I do think this is going to end up being policy rather than technical.

 

Thanks

[wickit]

I agree with most of you about it being down to the staff, but that said I have been also asked by the school leaders to just set up a global out of hours reply.

 

There is a third party bit of software that can do what you're asking

https://www.codetwo.com/out-of-office-manager/

 

I have tried it and its rubbish, crashes all the time... but you might have more luck than me.

 

I am currently testing (successfully so far) using MS flow to do this, and will report back once I have tested some more.

[CharlesGreig]

@wickit I have heard some good things about flow, I have only just taken over at my school so I'm more firefighting at the moment than bringing in new systems, but it is something I am eager to get more into as I think it has a bunch of applications for schools.

 

Absolutely let me know how you get on with it, I am super interested to hear how you get on.

 

Thanks

 

Charles

[HPlum78]

When did having to policy how and when staff communicate become a thing? I think it's a very personal and to policy that someone should or should not read/ reply to email is an interesting position. I try to distance myself from this on here as we are a technical forum and it's not my place to second guess why people want to do things with tech (like stopping Geoff playing with his YoYo at the back of the class during lesson time) it's just not my concern and our primary goal is to help find solutions not drive someone else's policies. It's to emotive and if anyone stumbles upon our conversations who is above the post holder it could invite some interesting conversations! I think we should try to remain technical and objective but by all means pass comment on how using a specific solution is not best practice but steer away from calling out peoples bosses/ organisations as bat shit crazy.

 

Also just for info some of our French counterparts are having to find interesting ways of stopping email reaching staff using transport rules and the likes!

 

Not calling anyone out here just something that this thread has highlighted and is one of just many where we are straying away from being a technical forum to being something very different.

[synaesthesia]

Whilst I agree to a small extent, we are not merely computer operators and should not therefore be jumping on something because management say so. We're here to advise, and just because something might not be in expertise, it doesn't make our point of view invalid. I will continue to call these people batpoo crazy and that includes countries that have actually made it a legal requirement. Our primary goal is to find solutions, and those solutions may not necessarily be technical in nature.

[CharlesGreig]

@HPlum78 I get you, I don't think you're wrong, I don't think I would ever say anything online that I would worry particularly if my bosses saw, I don't know if it is me that has you worried, but none-the-less, I think its a fair point, I always am ultra professional in my emails even when talking to friends etc as I always take the view that my boss could stumble upon anything or someone could send anything unprofessional to them. That being said, I think that its fair that people can disagree with their bosses and their desire to solve a policy problem techincally. I appreciate that not everyone (and least of all bosses) will agree with me on that.

 

I have read with interest this french law thing with the hope it might help, but the problem I really have with automated systems is the reliability and the granularity that I am trying to achieve, its not something I have seen anyone achieve in a way that they seem fully happy with - there are a lot of people talking about MTA's but with a distinct lack of specifics, I used to work with a company providing security MTA's which could probably achieve this, but the cost would put it WAY out of the reach of most schools, I do think that we often try for techincal solutions where policy would be better and being as I think the desired outcome of this is simply to try and address work life balance, I don't think its a bad idea - I do think if you make it policy not to do this and people choose to ignore it, you can reasonably say that they have had every opportunity to do so and that email out of hours isn't 'expected' - much in the same way that health and safety policies exist, but have you never seen anyone standing on a chair or something? We don't remove every chair... weird analogy but I hope it makes sense.

 

Anyway, I am happy to do both policy and technical if I can find a good technical solution, and that is where I'm drawing a blank thus far.

 

PS, if my boss is reading this, hey, this is me doing my job, I told you I was doing some research!

 

Thanks

[FishCustard]

Our primary goal is to find solutions, and those solutions may not necessarily be technical in nature.

 

Indeed. And many of us have it explicitly in our job descriptions to advise SLT on technology, and ensure that the school's/organisation's use of technology follows best practices. Blindly implementing something technical that is far better done with policy meant that we wouldn't be doing our jobs.

[wickit]

@wickit I have heard some good things about flow, I have only just taken over at my school so I'm more firefighting at the moment than bringing in new systems, but it is something I am eager to get more into as I think it has a bunch of applications for schools.

 

Absolutely let me know how you get on with it, I am super interested to hear how you get on.

 

Thanks

 

Charles

 

No problem. I use flow with our sharepoint helpdesk, works a treat.

 

Will keep you posted, as will be testing the OOH over the weekend

[jthompson]

Part of me wonders whether there isn't some school leaders' equivalent of EduGeek out there somewhere, where odd ideas like hobbling email systems are able to bubble up into existence and be spread around enthusiastically. It seems like quite a few people on this forum have been charged with putting it into action. Somebody, somewhere is holding this up in front of senior teacher types as something to try. Who are they?

[FishCustard]

Possibly articles in The Key (https://thekeysupport.com/) although I've not seen one myself.