My project is entirely phone based and we don’t have voicemail, either for the project line or individual staff lines. We used to, but we found we spent so much time returning voicemails and getting people’s voicemails that it led to us missing calls and going in an infinite loop.
Thanks for your email. Right now I am camping in the countryside with my family which means I will be completely switching off from all technology for a few days (gasp!).
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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.
Keeping It Real. I am currently out of the office on vacation. I know I’m supposed to say that I’ll have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond until I return, but that’s not true.
But this is where it becomes a power thing. The OOO person says that everyone else wants stuff from them that the sender can’t get elsewhere and you need to grovel to get it from them.
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I was once horrified as an HR person, and amused as a normal person, by an OOO from an employee who had left the company. They had booked vacation for their last week or so, and while I can’t remember the exact text, it said that they were no longer with the company and they were happy to leave and never come back. I think “to this hellhole” was only implied.
4.) Bienvenido/a a soluciones John Doe. Por motivos de organización interna nuestro equipo no se encuentra disponible hoy. Si lo desea, puede dejarnos un mensaje. Volveremos a atenderle el lunes. Gracias por su comprensión.
Boss would put up an OOO when attending an event off-site, but would still be answering their emails, which meant that I would get “Boss said you were the correct contact, can you help?” Inevitably, I would respond and, two hours later, Boss would too, cc-ing me on the original email in which they shared the exact same info I had earlier that day. It was MADDENING.
My employer uses Outlook and it has an option to display all OOO messages when you add the person into the To/CC/BCC fields of an email, prior to sending it. It’s pretty great and actually saves an email sometimes because I can see who I should contact and just go to them.
3. Out of Office Email with Specific Dates Example. [Greeting] I will be out of the office starting (Starting Date) through (End Date) returning (Date of Return).
It’s great to hear from you. I’m currently out of the office until mm/dd with limited/ no access to my email. Anyway, feel free to contact [email] in case your request is urgent.
My voicemail is set up to forward to my email. I did this years ago, way before the Late Unpleasantness. And it’s perfect for working remotely. (I have trained my students to use email. My colleagues hate voicemail too, so we use email and gchat. Or walk down the hall when we’re live and in person)
I took two weeks off recently and put together a google doc of anticipated things someone might need to know. I slacked it to our whole team with instructions not to call me unless we’re about to lose $1 million or more (we’re a small office and I wear a lot of hats so lots of small things could have been a problem). IDK if anyone actually read it, but it set a tone of “don’t think you can reach me for the next 2 weeks” and let me keep a short OOO response.
5.) Chers clients, notre bureau sera fermé du 24 décembre au 2 janvier. Vous pouvez nous contacter comme d’habitude le lundi 5 janvier. Nous vous souhaitons à vous et votre famille un joyeux noël et une nouvelle année réussie…
This is the dream. If I could do this, I would! I hate voicemails (and the phone in general) so, so much!
I am at an opera house in the countryside (i.e. without reception) and shall return to the office on XX.