5. 5 The Friendly Professional. Season’s Greetings! Thanks for getting in touch. I’m out of the office enjoying the holidays until [date]. I’ll respond as quickly as I can when the festivities are over and I’m back at my desk.
While I won’t be quite as far and remote as the North Pole, I will still be completely disconnected from my inbox until my return. So if you require immediate assistance, please send your email to [Contact Name] at [contact email]. Out of Office Template #5 For the Person Who Will Be Checking in (Reluctantly)
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Two to three sentences is usually enough to tell recipients everything they need to know.
An out-of-office auto-reply serves to inform people that you aren’t available to respond to their emails. These are mainly used during the holidays.
It was very inefficient but I was making $3 above minimum wage and it was air conditioned. So no argument from me. They took me back for the winter break and would have had me every other summer except I did internships, so I guess I didn’t do too badly.
If your message is urgent, fear not — we’ll get it addressed. Try doing one of two things: Send me an email at [email protected]. Just kidding. That’s not a real email address. Reach out to my manager at [email protected] in my absence.
If there's a year to take a break for the holidays, it's 2020! Since replying to email can make it hard to disconnect, set your vacation responder before you log off for the season.
In my much, MUCH younger days, I printed out a photo of a cruise ship with an arrow and “I am here” pasted on it and taped it to my monitor…
Please accept our apology for the inconvenience this may cause. We are thankful for your understanding.
Luckily for you, my colleague *Name* generously offered to cover for me. You can reach him/her at *email*.
I guess I generally dislike ones where the person is actually around but just might take longer than usual to answer emails (except in public-facing inboxes, etc.) I understand that if I’m using email, you might not respond right away.
Sorry I missed you — I’m unable to get to my email right this second. Why? I’m on a backpacking trip, surviving on Spam, really good water, and trail mix. You should see the stars out here.
8. "Hi, you've reached [your name]. I'm unable to come to the phone right now. But if you leave your name, number, and a short message, I'll be sure to call back."
It is entirely possible to enjoy a podcast and hate voicemail, nothing about issues with human voices.
OMG. When I was in college, my mom got me a summer job at her office. All I did was send faxes, get faxes back, and put dates in a spreadsheet.
I might sound nitpicky but the language is important. “Might” or “may be” or “slower than usual” are vague and don’t offer the sender all that much information about when you’re really going to respond to them. Worse, they do a horrible job of protecting the time of the email receiver who, as the responder notes, is not in the office! Such a responder implies that, not only will the vacationer reply to the email, but they may not even miss a beat. They may be slow to respond, but they also might not.
Out of office messages differ depending on whether you are sending them within or outside the company. The language you use and the information you provide can also depend on the workplace environment. Here are three out of office message examples that illustrate these differences.