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Is there a "Do Not Disturb" Function for Outlook Desktop

KHAN Humzah - (BIS) - KINECTRICS 1 Reputation point
2022-06-09T17:14:16.043+00:00

I am working at a company based in Ontario and we are looking into different measures we can put in place to abide by Ontario's new 'Right-to-disconnect' policy.

Background:
For those that aren't aware, essentially the policy stipulates that employers shouldn't expect replies or work outside their designated working hours.

That includes for example not needing to reply to an email until 9am the next day.

What a lot of companies end up doing is just putting in a footer at the bottom of the email like, "I sent this email when it was convenient for me, I don't expect a reply till it is convenient for you" or so.

Question:
In addition to the footer we are also looking into setting a snooze on email notifications for outside working hours in outlook.

I know there is a function called "Do not disturb" on the mobile, but I haven't found anything for it on desktop.

So the question becomes, is there any way to create a "Do not disturb" function in outlook, say in an outlook add-in for example. Where incoming emails are received but do not give a notification say from 6pm - 8am. And during working hours the notifications return to normal. And this add-in can be enabled or disabled by anyone at any time they like.

We're just trying to give all the employees here, an option to not be bombarded after work hours, in case they are on their laptop or computer at home or something.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Outlook Management
Outlook Management
Outlook: A family of Microsoft email and calendar products.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. ChristyZhang-MSFT 22,081 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-06-10T06:10:51.653+00:00

    Hi @KHAN Humzah - (BIS) - KINECTRICS ,

    Welcome to our forum!

    According to your description, i have done a lot of research and test on this issue but didn't find an useful methods to set the notification as you need. And I notice you mentioned "We're just trying to give all the employees here, an option to not be bombarded after work hours, in case they are on their laptop or computer at home or something", considering that the notification is also related to the notification settings on the computer, if your employees may log in on multiple devices, it will be even more out of control. I'm afraid your requirements cannot be fulfilled.

    If you really need to continue using the Outlook client without being disturbed, as a workaround, i it is recommended that you could turn on Work Offline during off-duty hours. In this way, you can continue to work with messages you have already received, and you will not receive new messages or any notifications.
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    Hope the above help!

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  2. Marcus Claxton 1 Reputation point
    2022-06-15T02:44:37.803+00:00

    Hi there, unfortunately I don't think that there is currently a feature that will achieve what you are wanting in the desktop Outlook app. That sort of functionality would be fantastic though, especially if it was something that could be corporately configured using group policy. There is of course the option as already has been mentioned to set Outlook to "Work Offline" but that doesn't really achieve what you are trying to get to I think. It is also possible to manually configure the notification settings through Outlook options, but what you are really wanting is a single button that will turn them off and on when required, or alternatively being able to schedule the notification changes base on work hours would be fantastic.

    Marcus

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  3. Cynthia 1 Reputation point
    2022-10-26T14:21:56.86+00:00

    Hi,

    Just a thought.. if the email was sent during after work hours and it is not an urgent email and it does not need to be addressed until the next day, would the sender be willing to spend additional few seconds to set up a "Delay Delivery" under Options tab and set it to be sent any time between 8am-9am the next morning?
    This way, they can send whenever it is convenient for them, and the recipient won't be "disturbed" during non-working hours and receive it shortly before they're supposed to log in.
    I personally use this feature regularly, but I haven't really seen a lot of my peers using it.

    Hope this helps.

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