Seriously, literally, anything but a voicemail. I’d take “sharpie on a dirty napkin delivered by carrier pigeon to my island vacation” over voicemails. I can’t flag voicemails for later. And also, we have this cool new feature where you can see missed calls. I do not need a voicemail just saying “Hey its Bob, call me back.”
I will surely respond to your email when I’m back in the office. But, if this requires an immediate response, please resend any messages that require my immediate attention with a subject line of “URGENT: [Original Subject]”.
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I love this and want to start using it. I am assuming it’s pronounced “hood-a-lay” and that said hodilay has already begun when the OOO message was written!
I do find the above quite amusing, but it would never fly at my place of work! lol!
Crafting an out of office message can be plenty of fun and we're about to show you how with our Mad Libs version!
Due to a bank holiday, I am out of the office on 18th November. Emails won’t be forwarded and will be answered after my return on 19th November.
Agreed! A bit of warmth is fine, sure, but it’s not the place for chattiness — that’s for talking to an actual person. I want an OOO message to tell me that the person is out, when they’ll be back, and who I should contact in the meantime if need be. No objections to multiple options there, whether it’s “X for llama grooming issues and Y for llama tea parties” or “X for routine questions, Y if it’s urgent, Z if it’s an emergency,” but I want to be able to absorb the useful info quickly and move on.
Oh my gosh, yes! This also drives me crazy. The game of emailing 15 people because they are all out and pointing to each other as their back up. Infuriating.
To help you write yours, here’s everything you need to know, along with a few out of office templates for you to choose from:
If you don’t see the Automatic Replies button, follow the steps to use rules to send an out of office message.
I could see the benefit if someone needed to ask something before they left. It seems courteous?
An out of office message is an automatic response to work communications when you are away from the office. Using your email or messaging service, you can set up an automatic response to anyone who is trying to contact you. An out of office message should tell the sender: That you are not in the officeThe dates you will be goneWho they can contact while you are awayWhen to expect a response from you Why is an out of office message important?
Pet peeve: a fe people I know use the OOO reply to say something like ‘Have a great day!’ It is on all the time, and for no helpful reason.
I remember a phone tree that at the end of the normal boring options there was “To hear a duck press 8”
So now this email is working overtime with the flood of enquiries, spam, well-wishes, and broken hearts.
Great article but I have two issues: everytime I use my phone I must say I am not driving, then remember to turn back on manual mode so DND turns on again… and the Urgent message distracts from my auto-reply encouraging customers to book appointments online… Any way to turn off the Urgent message? I haven’t found anyone at Apple that seems to know how to fix either of the above.
Holiday messages are short quotes, where people wish happiness or luck upon others. Employees generally issue these messages before certain festivities as a courtesy or to let recipients know that you care about them. Depending on who the recipient is, your holiday message may be more formal or casual in tone.