Changing it every evening is definitely too much, though. I would assume the vast majority of people sending business email understand the concept of working and non-working hours…
Sure, Kopelman is truthful about the fact that he's on vacation, but he also lets the recipient know that he or she would be interrupting important family time if the first option is chosen. It states a point simply and uses humor to avoid making it sound like he wants the reader to feel guilty.
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2. Include a GIF to make your auto-response more fun. Everyone can appreciate the excitement of pushing work aside to go on vacation. Bring this to life by linking to a GIF in your vacation responder message. Here’s an example out of office reply: Shoot, you just missed me.
Please contact (Contact Person with email and phone) if you need immediate assistance.
› Url: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/send-automatic-out-of-office-replies-from-outlook-9742f476-5348-4f9f-997f-5e208513bd67 Go Now
If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact (Contacts Name) at (Contacts Email Address). Otherwise, I will respond to your emails as soon as possible upon my return.
While you certainly don’t want to go on and on in your message, there is an opportunity to engage or educate while you’re away. Here are a few options to potentially include.
Thanks for your email. I’ll be away from the office until [DATE] and will respond as soon as I can. For all support requests/needs, please reach out to [EMAIL] and one of my colleagues will be happy to assist you. If you’re interested in signing up for [PRODUCT], feel free to reach out to my manager [NAME] at [EMAIL]. You can learn more about [COMPANY NAME] presence here. Don’t forget to smile!
I once left a kind of breezy, fun out of office message for “people inside my organization” that said the literal truth: “I am out of office this week at a mountain resort where I have paid many hundreds of dollars for someone to take my electronics away from me. I’ll get back to you Monday,” and a very normal and professional OOO for “people outside my organization.” Needless to say I returned to a message from a senior (but not, I stress, my boss or even on my team) colleague calling me out on it. People surely can make things their business.
My OOO replies are relatively boring…usually state if I’m using PTO or at a conference, dates, who to bother in my place, etc.
Right?! If it’s a 3 day retreat, that’s one thing. But not being around for an hour or two shouldn’t be any kind of BIG DEAL.
Amanda works at HubSpot, and she came with a unique auto respondent that asked her contacts to guess where she is. To give background, she flew down to Boston to attend a Red Sox training game in the spring with her father. She chose to ask her contacts whether where they think she might be, and also this played some wonderful use of litotes here:
Thanks for writing! You can expect a response to your note in 1-2 business days. While you’re waiting—surprise! Here’s something I made for you: [Include a worksheet, tool, video, blog post, checklist, resource list, or whatever you’d like!] I hope [name of thing] makes your day a little brighter and easier. Thanks for your patience, and talk to you soon!
I’d be happier getting this than one of the out-of-office messages that provides waayyy too much detail — “I’m at home nursing an unhappy stomach, hope to be in tomorrow, but meanwhile am resting and checking email in between bathroom runs,” etc.
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If I am out of office for more than one day, I will update my email out of office message “I am out of the office with limited access to email until {X date}. Please direct any questions to {support department email}.”
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