Now that you know what you should and shouldn’t include, how do you go about crafting the perfect out-of-office vacation message?
I am annoyed when people send a “fergus ooo” outlook invite! Maybe that’s the (annoying imo) style for your team Fergus, but our nearest common ancestor is 3 or 4 people up, you’re not that important and I don’t care!
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My snarky colleague sure did in his out-of-office message below. We send thank-you letters in response to holiday gifts, so it’s only natural to expect the same gesture in our work inboxes …
A standard OOO responder email simply needs to inform the sender that you are out of the office and when to expect a response. Like this: Hi there, Thank you for your email. I am currently out of the office until [date] and will have limited access to my email. If you require immediate assistance for any urgent matters, please contact [name] at [email] or [phone] in my absence. Best,
Thank you for your email. I am out of the office and will be back on Nov 10th. During this period, I will have limited access to my email.
No one thinks much about cybersecurity while traveling. However, email security company Tessian warns the out of office message actually plays right into the hands of threat actors and cybercriminals. It’s a social engineering attack vector that no one thinks about. The out of office message is ubiquitous and handy. But if it includes any personal information at all — such as attending a funeral or going out of the country — attackers have all the information they need to impersonate the person who is out of the office, without the attacker having to do any real work.
That said, be careful with messages that are this curt. Make sure you’re familiar enough with your audience — and your boss, for that matter — to know that this sort of out-of-office message will be met with a snicker, and not with annoyance.
Microsoft 365 subscribers can set up automatic replies for when they are out-of-office or unavailable to respond to email.
I had coworkers (and people up my chain of command) that did/do this. The thing all those people had/have in common is that they came from the military. So I always took it as a military thing. Curious if that particular coworker had a military background.
That’s right. An out-of-office response is an automated email message that will be sent back to anyone who shoots you an email while you’re on leave. They are important. For starters, you don’t want to appear snobbish, and… you might even get some new leads just by leaving a well-thought-of out-of-office email message.
Microsoft 365 subscribers can set up automatic replies for when they are out-of-office or unavailable to respond to email.
A. Yes; however, Rocket Wireless will have very limited hours during winter break, with no in-person hours. Please call Rocket Wireless at 419.530.4807 or send an email; responses will be made only during half of the day (or two) after Christmas Day.
Unfortunately I didn’t save it, but I once received of office reply that included a synopsis of the “comedic novel” they were working on during their time off.
Leaving an email without a responder can appear unprofessional, lose potential business and, worst of all, make you look like Scrooge!
I’ve honestly considered changing my OOO message/voicemail to “You’ve reached Lisa. I’m overwhelmed right now, so I’ll get back to you eventually.”
I dislike it, too. But I add it, because we have managers who do check their email on days off & respond. That’s above my pay grade as far as I’m concerned, but I don’t want people to think that I might be checking.
Completely agree. I have also recently have seen multiple out of office messages that say something along the lines of, “Please be aware that I may be slow to respond to emails today.” If it’s that time-sensitive, why is it an email? Asynchronous communication tools shouldn’t be smashed into the roles of real-time ones, and vice versa.