check your mail. Giving out your password is generally not recommended. But you can put a temporary password on your mail system while you're away and change it back later. Some systems also allow you to set up a limited-access password for the person screening your mail.
Another useful feature, called "answermail" or
"vacation" in the UNIX
world, lets you write a message that automatically responds to anyone
who sends you email while you're away. The message tells your correspondent how long you'll be gone and whom to contact if the information is urgent. This is a great feature; if you have it, use it. Do be
careful, however, if you've subscribed to mailing lists. If the program
automatically responds to everyone on the list, thousands of uninterested people could be forced to read about your vacation schedule.
If you've been working for more than a few years, you remember when
electronic mail was quite unusual. Today it's commonplace, and it's
changing the way we work. It can even affect us physically. I gained
about 20 pounds in the two years after email was installed throughout
my workplace, and I'm pretty sure it was because I had so much less
running around to do. (It's a good excuse, anyway.)
Email has made a number of major changes in the way business functions:
The
effects of email on the working world
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