Networking Pro-Tip: Set Expectations
Step away from the pressure of someone else's hustle expectations by making the most of your out-of-office message.
I recently emailed with rather busy friends, and was more than delighted to receive this out-of-office in response from one of them:
Thank you for your email.
With two EU projects running at full pelt and SheVentures happening from Sunday to Tuesday next week I'm completely snowed under.
Back at my desk properly on Thursday 23 May and unlikely to answer any but the most urgent of emails between now & then. If you need a more urgent reply, please ring me, send me a text or message me on social media.
Enjoy the rest of your week - Mary
In a world of instantaneous expectations (and whinging when someone is "unreachable" because they didn't email back within 30 seconds) leveraging the out-of-office message feature to explicitly set expectations may just give you a teensy bite of breathing space from the hectic hustle being thrust upon you.