I understand how important it is for you to get the information and services that you need, however, I am no longer with Jones Consulting.
Here are some samples and templates of automatic reply messages across various scenarios.
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That’s it. That’s all. Simple and to the point, this message will let people know that you can’t respond to messages.
I have a colleague who directs people to email an alternative email alias when she’s on leave. This alternative email alias? Yup goes to her. Don’t know why she does it. She’s also set a rule in her team that they have to answer each others’ phones of someone is away from their desk. Inevitably, the person answering the phone can’t help and tells the caller to send an email. It drives me up the wall.
It’s time for yet another everyone’s favorite period of the year! For me, it means eating as many cookies as possible while gulping down as much mulled wine as possible. Yes, this also means trying to remember every line of dialogue from [your favorite holiday movie] as my favorite holiday flick
My old job was like that! It was so, so annoying. I understood requiring us to update our voicemails if we were out of the office that day, but it was just a waste of a few minutes every single morning.
5. Internal out of office reply template. An internal reply can use slightly more informal language but should not be too casual. Remember that any employee, including management, will be able to see this auto response if they email you.
Now that you know what you should and shouldn’t include, how do you go about crafting the perfect out-of-office vacation message?
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I do typically come back to hundreds of emails, and I prioritize what to read – things from my boss/leadership are first, followed by communication from my direct reports. I also sort them by conversation thread and read the end of them first, which reduces the burden.
Readers, what do you like and hate in out-of-offices replies? Any stories of particularly off-key ones?
Just say you’re away from your desk! Or if you’re out for more than a day, just say you’re “away” until XYZ date.
I had a coworker for the first 6 months or so of the pandemic set an out of office status on Teams that he was working from home and could be contacted at x number. Dude. We’re all working from home, and those stupid status messages are distracting!
I’ll be on maternity leave from [DATE] until [DATE]. For general inquiries about [DEPARTMENT/ROLE], please email [CONTACT NAME]. If this matter is not time-sensitive, feel free to resend your email in [MONTH] when I will be regularly checking emails again.
That is kind of glorious. And it does make sense when the person you’re emailing is gone for months. I did something similar my last mat leave except I didn’t explicitly state it, and lo and behold, people figured out that I wasn’t going to catch their email from a month or so earlier unless they brought it up again.
How's that for an out-of-office message? Probably not ideal. As a working professional, emails are your lifeline. And even when you're not around to respond, you need to let senders know you're not actually ignoring them.
I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.