When I return from a break, I talk to the people who have acted in my stead and get the rundown of what happened/what needs to still be done. That’s part of my whole “back to work triage”.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Muse and is reprinted with permission.
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Also known as “autoresponder emails,” out-of-office messages run the gamut. From funny, to clever, to snarky, this message can both show your personality and let senders know that, well, you’re out of office.
One of your European connections here. When I know the person covering me will also be away for part of the time I’m gone, I get another colleague to cover for those dates and put that in my OOO. Saying “Your e-mail will not be read” or similar is really off-putting. The youth worker at my church does this and I find it infuriating. Of course it won’t. That’s the point of a holiday. When I get an answer from someone who reads his e-mails on vacation I’m pleasantly surprised.
Thank you for your e-mail. Unfortunately, I will not be able to answer your e-mail from 25.08.2020 until 02.09.2020 Your e-mail has not been forwarded. During my absence please contact my team via this e-mail [email protected], raise a ticket or contact my team leader (YOUR TEAM LEADER’S NAME) [email protected].
Finally, if you’re doing something incredible for the holiday break, you may as well let people know about it. Heading skiing for a few weeks, or going on a cruise? Put it in your out of office! It’s not like your emailers can do anything about it.
Come Christmas time, there’s nothing quite like tidying up your desk, shamefully closing your 50 Chrome tabs, and switching on your out-of-office responder for the holidays.
Here are some suggestions for what you should always include in your auto-reply emails when you are out of the office:
‘Karen’ is his executive assistant. Who he really should have had craft that OOO message.
You should use your out of office email whenever you’re going to be away from the office – whether it’s for a day, a week, or even longer.
I am currently out of the office and will not have access to email. Please contact Elena Prince at [email protected] in my absence.
I had a voicemail greeting like that in High School!! I can’t imagine an adult having that kind of VM greeting; it would definitely annoy me coming from anyone older than like 20.
One aspect of preparing to take off work for a holiday involves setting up your out of office email reply. By reviewing some key examples of out of office messages, you can craft your own before your holiday time off. In this article, we define holiday …
I worked at an office where we used OOO messages on voicemail pretty regularly and if we forgot to change the message, our callers were quick to tell us the outgoing message was outdated. That end date feature would have been a big help for us! A local council in Wales needed to get a road sign translated into Welsh. (All official signs in Wales have to be in both English and Welsh.) They got an out of office message in Welsh from the translator they contacted, assumed that was the translation and printed the out of office message on the sign. They didn’t realise their mistake till a Welsh speaker pointed it out…
Automated text messages can not only serve as response placeholders until you’re back in the office, but they can also be: A first line of contact for customer service inquiries A lead generation toolA promotional channel for your contentAnd so much more!
Please contact my colleague (YOUR COLLEAGUE’SNAME) for your urgent concerns. Otherwise, I´ll attend to your emails upon my return at 08.02.2021.
If that’s truly what you intend, great. But if not, you may want to take a deep breath and try this: “I am currently on vacation and not accepting emails. Please contact x for any issues while I’m away.” This approach is refreshingly honest and clear. And as long as you’re comfortable with the competence and availability of your back-up contact, you shouldn’t feel funny or guilty about going this route at all.