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.
Top of the iceberg though. Oh, and she also works with external contacts, including prospective clients.
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It’s like telling your bank before you leave the country; overlooking it can cause communication issues.
You’ve reached [Company Name], the [company’s slogan]. Please choose from the following menu options: To speak with the operator, press 0. For customer support, press 1. For troubleshooting questions, press 2. For accounting questions, press 3. For a list of our staff members, press 4. To leave us a message, press 5. To repeat these options, press 6. After-Hours Greetings
Set up a vacation response to let your contacts know why you’re away or out of the office and when to expect you back. You can configure separate responses to use for different domains, such as one for your Yahoo email and another for your Gmail account.
Our office will be closed for our Thanksgiving Holiday on [date]. The office will reopen on [date].
For many roles, of course, the sort of OoO described wouldn’t work. But there are a lot of roles where people would survive just fine letting their requests sit for an extra week before forwarding again. And especially at smaller companies where there they might be pressed for coverage when people are out, I think it’s great to normalise that a job is basically ‘off-line’ for a week or two so that the employee can rest and recharge.
Josh Kopelman’s vacation email is a classic example of taking a blunt approach at OOO messages.
If you are checking emails while you’re out and are responding slower than normal, state that, suggests Jill Gugino Panté, director of the Lerner Career Services Center at the University of Delaware. “If you don’t have access to email and can’t return messages, state that as well,” she says. “The clearer you are in your messaging, the better.”
Plus the world of technology has moved on from answering machines (which is all voice mail is) so… nice vintage projector you got there
I had a voicemail greeting like that in High School!! I can’t imagine an adult having that kind of VM greeting; it would definitely annoy me coming from anyone older than like 20.
An old boss had a pet peeve about this so I became very conscious of making sure that I listed out who to contact on what day… before the group email. So it looked something like this:
Happy Labor Day Card | Birthday & Greeting Cards by Davia. I'm out of the office until date. If you have any pressing questions, please include the word urgent in your subject line so i can make your email my top priority during. Examples of out of office messages for holidays. I am out of the office for the holiday weekend, however, i am responding to emails that need immediate action.
End your out-of-office response with a way your callers and emailers can stay connected on social media, if you use it for work. This is especially helpful if you keep active social media accounts (like Facebook or Snapchat) and expect calls from leads who may need some nurturing.
Coworkers, clients, and subscribers typically expect fast responses and solutions to their problems, particularly from people working in customer service, marketing, and communications jobs. Out of office messages provide them with a polite, concise, and professional explanation of why you cannot respond right away. You can provide an OOO message if you are gone for one day, one week, or several months.
Get out of the office early.Make sure you inform your managers and co-workers that you will be leaving early. Do something fun since you are out early from work. Go for a movie or the happy hour at your favorite restaurant or bar with your co-workers.