Having someone who can fill in for you while you’re away is critical, says Misner. “If you don’t have an assistant, have a coworker back you up,” he says. “It’s an effective technique if you support one another.”
I’m guessing that this comment was gratuitously cruel on purpose just for the lulz, but I’ll give it a serious response anyway:
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For Talent For Companies Events Videos eBook Library Visit Jobbio.com Press enter to begin your search The Best Out Of Office Templates For Your Next Holiday No Comments 0 0 It doesn’t matter if you’re heading to the Bahamas for two weeks (we can only dream at this stage) or just going camping for a long weekend, there is nothing more satisfying than setting your out of office email. So, don’t just settle for the same old boring automated responses. Try one of our fun templates instead.
With all that in mind, read on for a few examples of what you might actually write...
Not quite an OOO, but a former boss had an email signature that said she was doing field work so her email responses would be delayed.
Who says an autoresponder needs to be impersonal? You can use your OOO message to continue building a relationship with present and potential customers by showing off the knowledge and products you have to offer. You can include a case study, a downloadable to your latest report, or a link to an excellent blog post you published. Not only does this further your credibility, but it also allays the feelings of frustration customers might feel while not being able to reach you.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was funny and not annoying! I’m with Alison that it’s probably just a little wordy, but there’s no problem with the humor.
Thank you for your email! I am on vacation. Vacations are not for checking email, so I won’t be doing that. Fortunately, we rarely encounter life and death situations in the world of [INDUSTRY TYPE], and aren’t we all glad for that? If you think I’m checking email because you just received an email from me, that is only because I figured out the pixies that send emails on a schedule. Really, I’m not checking email.
haha no offense taken. No one wanted to read (or even listen!) to all that. We only did it so she’d stop ruining our Mondays with epic 1-hour rants about what terrible people we are. And no, none of the projects we worked on were ever so critical or time-sensitive!
An out of office message could become an opportunity to connect with your client on a more personal level. Consider sharing something about yourself that they might not have known about while working with you.
I also tend to check my email 2-3x per day while I’m out for my own sanity and will respond to important* ones if not doing so would hold something big* up. Not using OOO avoids some of the self-righteous nonsense from people with nothing better to do than try to micromanage my personal time.
If you are eligible for winter break but are required to work because you provide an essential service, your supervisor will notify you well in advance.
If you’re out for several days, then sure, say when you’ll be back and leave info for who to contact in the meantime.
Ha – I didn’t watch the video but still definitely get the condescension! It’s a LOT of extra explaining and direction when something like, “if you need immediate assistance, please contact Fergus at…” will do. In my opinion, cutesy stuff like this is mildly entertaining at the beginning but gets dumb/annoying shortly thereafter. Not just with OOO messages, but other instances where companies try to make being “cool/funny/laid back” parts of their brand in really obvious ways.
I personally like it. Of course, the emails that I’ve seen still say what to do if the matter is urgent and needs to be handled now — but as a person who gets 100+ emails a day, whether I tell you I’m deleting all of them when I get back or not — if it is in the thousands of emails that might accumulate in the time I am off, I’m not going to see it or respond. Better that I tell you now that you are going to have to resend the email after I return (or get my backup to handle it now) than you sit around waiting for a response that is never going to come. It is actually pretty common in my industry for any absence two weeks or more.
(first line in the second one refers to the new exec for our function starting that same week – an internal move). If I can get the date I’ll be back into the haiku I do, otherwise I put it afterwards, along with the person to contact in my absence. Obviously if I’m off sick or otherwise can’t be bothered I don’t do the haiku.
Just hang in there, the holiday break is near. Alas! You can finally disconnect, recharge, and relax.