My pet peeves are too much personal information (no need to tell me your cousin had a hysterectomy) and the ones that are carbon dated, e.g. from 2018.
We are encouraged to put up messages that say we have “limited access to email” and alternative contact for things like travel between offices and conferences. We’re technically working those days, but it may be hard to reach us.
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Thank you for being part of our family. Happy holidays!From our family to yours, wishing you a joyful and warm holiday season!We appreciate you continuing to choose us. Here’s to a wonderful next year, too!We love working with you. Hoping you have a fantastic holiday season with plenty of festivities!Making the dream work requires clients like you who believe in us. Happy holidays!We appreciate your business. May you have a happy holiday season!Thank you for believing in us. Let’s look forward to an even better new year. Happy holidays!A big thank you for helping us reach new heights this year. Wishing you a warm holiday greeting!Thank you for choosing us! Happy holidays to you and your family.We value every customer. Happy holidays, and thank you for choosing us!Final Thoughts
If your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please resend it to [email protected] and I’ll try to respond to it promptly.
The worst one I ever received was from a coworker (senior to me, but not my manager) many years ago. I’ll paraphrase it as my memory isn’t great:
2.) Bienvenido/a John Doe. Por vacaciones de empresa nuestros no volveremos a estar disponibles hasta el lunes día 4 de julio de 2016. El envío de los pedidos se reanudará el 1 de noviembre de 2016. Mientras tanto nos puede enviar sus peticiones por correo electrónico [email protected] o a través de nuestro formulario de contacto. ¡Muchas gracias! de Berlín están cerradas por vacaciones. Puede contactar con nosotros de lunes a viernes de 9:00h a 12:00h y de 13:00h a 18:00h. Para cuestiones generales también puede enviarnos un coreo electrónico a [email protected]. Muchas gracias. Le deseamos que tenga un buen día. Su empresa John Doe AG.
Readers, what do you like and hate in out-of-offices replies? Any stories of particularly off-key ones?
9. "Hey, this is [your name]. Thanks for reaching out. I'm busy at the moment, but if you leave your name, number, and message, I'll return your call.”
Something that actually was an issue with my employer ages ago: at one time there was a policy that out of office would only go to internal people, and nothing would be sent at all to anyone external. Apparently this was felt necessary in order to mitigate risk of burglary, so people wouldn’t know that “John Winchester has gone on a hunting trip” and that his house was empty.
COMPLETELY agree. Every time I see an OOO for a two-hour doctor’s appointment I have to fight the urge to reply with “How much are you paid?” because I know there is no scenario in which I would have to explain myself if I don’t answer an email for a few hours and if you are that important you better make a LOT more than I do.
Of course I’ll still be glad to hear from you – try me at this email: [insert email].
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Even if I do have access to my email while I’m vacation, I typically do “I’m out of office with no access to email or voicemail until (date). For anything requiring immediate attention please contact (boss).” If I happen to check my email I can still forward the important ones, but otherwise hopefully people get the message that I will not be responding.
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The auto-reply only replies ONCE to each email account, the first time they send. If someone sends you multiple messages, they will not get multiple replies back. This is a useful feature because it prevents your account from flooding a mailing list with replies or from filling your email inbox with automatic rejections from "do not reply" accounts.
I’m on vacation until July 18th. If you need to reach me, here’s what you’ll need to do: First, travel to my homeland of Florida. Climb to the highest peak of the tallest mountain. Find a rare flower (no specifics, of course... It’d be cheating). Put the flower back, because as the old hiking rule goes, “Leave everything as you found it.”
Set your personal email out of office message to reflect when you will return and if it is an emergency who they can reach.