If you’re out for the day, I think you literally just need to say “I’m not in the office today, but I’ll respond to your message as soon as I’m back.” If people need an answer to something today, they’re smart enough to figure out they need to ask somebody else.
It was just this colleague – it (thankfully) wasn’t the culture of the office, and I never saw anyone else abuse the OOO like this.
.
If your message requires a response faster than that, please email my manager at [email protected].
THANK YOU!!!!!! As a small business owner, I have struggled with any out of office time, weekends, and after hours. Clients seem to text more often than email these days, and there hasn’t been a way to inform them with “out of office reply”. This article helps me tremendously! Also, there should be more built into our phones for texting like email: read, mark as unread, and prioritize contacts of different rows or colors indicating favorites, contacts, and non-contacts (pesky customers who bombard you afterhours).
Here are the 25 best office closed for holiday message templates that are professional. ----- Our office will remain closed until the end of this week for Thanksgiving Holidays. We assure you that all your emails will be answered as soon as we return to the office. Happy Thanksgiving! ----- You can expect to hear back from me by [date]. Hope you have a great holiday!
Notice: Office hour of [company Name] during [holiday name] holidays the offices will remain open from : am to : pm. [company name] will be closed on [date] and resume operations on [date].
Thanks for your email! I’ll be OOO from [date] to [date] and will not be accessing email during that time.
It’s very likely that you’ll set up an auto-reply message while you’re at a conference or any other business event. What’s more, some of your prospects will be there as well, so you should use an opportunity like that to meet them in person and strengthen that relationship.
It’s my favorite time of year, which means I’m currently away from my inbox chugging mugs of cocoa, stuffing my face with cookies, and attempting to fulfill my life-long goal of memorizing every single line of [your favorite holiday movie].
I suppose it’s better than a colleague of mine who’s out of office is always: “I am out of the office until XXX. Please email me if you need assistance.”
Acknowledging the customer support messages with well-designed auto responders helps them to know what will be your next step for the request they have raised. They become sure that you as a business are looking into the issue and they will get the resolution soon.
Note: Sending automatic replies to anyone outside my organization will send your automatic reply to every email, including newsletters, advertisements, and potentially, junk email. If you want to send automatic replies to those outside your organization, we recommend choosing My contacts only.
We are closed today for the [public holiday name]. Our office will re-open tomorrow at am.
After I tweeted this example, dozens of people sent me examples of OOO messages they’d set or particularly good examples they’d seen in the wild. One example from a boss (via a TikTok) who offers emailers a decision tree of sorts. “Option 1.) Wait it out. Ask yourself, ‘is this urgent and important?’ If not, take a beat…you and I will be better off with this expectation set now,” the email begins. This one stands out because it’s extremely detailed, manages expectations and also offers who to contact in different situations. It models good behavior of taking time off, but also gives the original sender a variety of option. Most importantly, the responder forces the original sender to assess whether this is actually an urgent request.
4. Sample Email Reply for Vacations with Phone Number. [Your Greeting] Thank you for your email. I am currently out of the office, and I do not have email access.
I am on annual leave until [DD/MM/YY]. I will allow each sender one email and if you send me multiple emails, I will randomly delete your emails until there is only one remaining. Choose wisely.
Stav is a senior editor and writer at The Muse, where she covers careers and work with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Before joining The Muse, Stav was a staff writer at Newsweek, and her work has also appeared in publications including The Atlantic, The Forward, and Newsday. Stav earned a B.A. in history with a minor in dance at Stanford University and holds an M.S. from Columbia Journalism School. She won the Newswomen's Club of New York's Martha Coman Front Page Award for Best New Journalist in 2016. She prefers sunshine and tolerates winters grudgingly. You can find her on LinkedIn and Twitter and can visit her website here.