[bachmeier]

Seems that this defeats the purpose of email. You can send someone an email and they can handle it when it fits their schedule. The auto reply is nice, giving the names of others that can help them is nice, but telling them the message will be deleted and that they will have to send it again doesn't serve a purpose. Maybe this differs across cultures.

[Nursie]

Questions and problems have a habit of answering themselves or becoming less important when a week has passed. Should I spend hours going through 'stale' email when I get back, when 90% of it probably isn't important any more? The first action for each one being to check that?

I had an old manager who didn't go quite so far as to delete it, but he didn't go through his backlog after a vacation because "if it's important they'll ask again". I quite agree with this.