Individual Employee Responsibility: If correspondence is addressed directly to an individual employee, it is the responsibility of that employee to:

• assume personal responsibility to respond to and resolve any correspondence addressed to the employee and, if necessary, direct correspondence throughout the agency or to another agency for resolution;
• follow the acknowledgement standards outlined above;
• keep a record of the individual correspondence when the correspondence requests agency services or information; OR
• utilize (where appropriate) the main agency/sub–unit/department's tracking system.

Message–sensitive or policy–sensitive requests should be coordinated through the agency's public information officer, legal counsel, and/or senior advisor.

Out-of-the-Office Auto-response: If an employee will be out of the office for more than one full business day (eight hours), it is the employee's responsibility to have an out-of-the-office, auto–response email describing:

• the employee's absence from the office;
• the expected return date;
• when the employee will respond to the inquiry; and
• where the writer can call or email for immediate assistance.