Horses that reply to emails don’t exist, do they? Yes, in Iceland.
The idea is simple: work e-mails are answered by the four-legged friends on vacation.
Icelanders who are on vacation or traveling can book the bizarre horse service.
This should allow employees to enjoy their free time from work without constantly checking their emails.
A study by “Visit Island” found that 41 percent of those surveyed checked their work e-mail between one and four times a day – even though they were free.
14 percent of people even check five to six times whether they have received a new work email.
“Our email service is designed to take the pressure off people of feeling like they need to be reachable at all times. Instead, it should enable them to be present during their journey. Our service is the first of its kind in the world and we want to encourage people to switch off and take a well-deserved, undisturbed break. – Sigríður Dögg Guðmundsdóttir, Head of Visit Iceland
With the help of a huge keyboard, the horses can run in different gaits such as walk, trot or gallop over the keys and type in a text.
“Our talented horses roam the fields naturally, creating a one-of-a-kind email that helps vacationers enjoy their trip without distractions. Our horses are curious, intelligent, independent and very special – and now they are email answerers too.” – Jelena Ohm, Project Manager of Horses of Iceland
Especially since the pandemic, many people have been working from home. The “Visit Island” study also revealed that more than half of those surveyed (59 percent) have the feeling that they are expected to be available at all times, even outside of their working hours.
For this reason the horse mail service was created.
The horses can reply to annoying e-mails and thus enable Icelanders to have a relaxed holiday.