I say I am “away from my desk”, or “unavailable”. To indicate I am working, “I will be at my desk from xhour to yhour on xday”.
Thank you for your email. I’m currently out of the office, returning on [return date].
.
My phone just sits there gathering dust, so the only OOO message I need is the one I put in my email. Something like “I’ll read my email again on X. If you need assistance before then, please contact my colleague NN.”
We promise the world will not end while our offices are closed and encourage you cherish this time with your families and friends!
If there is an emergency, please email [email protected] and someone will contact you as soon as possible.
Otherwise, all hands will be back on deck upon my return on Thursday 5th September and I will reply to your email at the earliest convenience. The single biggest day of the year for calling in sick tends to fall during the festive period; more people were too ill to work on Monday 10 December than any other day last year. (Whosoff.com, 2019) December is the most popular month of the year for authorised absences, as many employees are using up their remaining holiday entitlement. (Whosoff.com, 2019)
But what should you do to keep the message informative, engaged and maybe a little festive?
One year my organization mistakenly left me off the phone directory. I made no attempt to correct that. The only people who could call me we’re those who knew my number; everyone else had to use email.
Website: https://newoldstamp.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-perfect-christmas-banner-for-email-signature/
If you receive a high volume of customer service texts, you may want an auto-response in place that acknowledges a customer query has been received. This can help buy you some time while attempting to reach as many people as you can. Hello! We received your inquiry and our support team is on it. We’ll get back to you in 20-30 minutes. Thank you for your patience!
So that we can all spend valuable time with our families, this Thanksgiving and the following Friday will be paid holidays for all employees. Enjoy the long weekend!
Unfortunately I didn’t save it, but I once received of office reply that included a synopsis of the “comedic novel” they were working on during their time off.
Website: https://voxendo.com/en/telephone-holiday-message-examples-vacation-announcement-scripts-ideas/
The plan B is to send it again when they’re back though. I think there are a lot of situations where I emailed them and someone else from the start and someone else answered, or I found someone else in the 2 months span until they’re back, or did it myself, or it’s too late to help…. So it does help them avoid following up on things that don’t need following up on.
Website: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-close-the-office-for-the-holidays-2533737
A professional email signature with contact information should do the trick in any case. Will you be monitoring your mailbox? – sometimes, when you are out of office, you may be able to check your incoming emails from time to time. If you can and do – include this information in your out of office message.
If it’s not that infinite loop of autoreply hell, you get the “I will not be reading or responding to any email sent during this time. Please resend your request after August 1st.” dismissal.