Under the 'what would happen if you got run over by a bus' principle, there really should be someone in the office who can effectively cover for you while you're away. If there isn't, this is something you should fix quite quickly if it's within your remit, or impress it's importance on whoever does have the remit for it. No point having systems that are resilient if the staff who maintain them aren't.

While I don’t get a huge number of e-mails I will after a week off still come back to a 100 – 150

I my old job I got a LOT more so what I used to do was delete all mail apart from the ones from my boss.

The logic was

- I had an out of office so if it’s important they will contact me on my return
- If it was from my boss then probably important (in his opinion) so I had better read it

The first time I did it was a bit scary but after that it worked well and meant that I only had a ½ dozen or so mails to read and not hundreds

Has to be said, inbox rules are your friend.

Other people in the office can cover most of what I do but generally I'm the first on in the office to get in so I'd rather not have to trawl through the 200 emails per day that arrive in my inbox to find the good ones I need when I can spend 5 mins a day checking the important emails whilst away.

Dumb-ass nonsense happens so frequently in my work that I have to be careful what emails I delete.

I filter all my mail and it makes targeting what needs to be dealt with so much easier.

I meant when I get back.

I set and out of office and read emails when I get back. I find catching up with emails on my first day back quite a relaxing way to ease myself back in to work life.

A holiday is a holiday so I don't check in with work but occasionally they'll call me.