Former coworker: “I am out of the country from X until Y. Please do not email me during this time as last time I came back to about 250, and reading them all takes up a lot of the time I have left before I retire.” Some people thought that was funny. The director who received that in response to an all staff communication? Not so much. Coworker got a talking to by his manager when he got back to the UK.
My new job provided a template OOO as part of the onboarding brand templates package! I’m sure it might seem like overkill to some, but I’ve had tons of nervous first-job employees ask me what theirs should say, so I loved that they just gave a sample to go from. Also goes a long way in communicating that unique office culture stuff that is usually unspoken/not formalized.
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I still will get urgent messages from coworkers with multiple follow-ups during my OOO period. Then an angry call or email when I return that the response time was too long. When I check with Jane about the status she says she was never contacted about the issue. I always push back “Why didn’t you contact Jane?” but I think a lot of people in my organization like to shift blame when they are behind on their deadlines. If it was really so urgent, why did you wait a week just to get an answer from me?
Are you fully inspired by the creative out-of-office messages above? It's time to write your own — your upcoming vacation depends on it. Try HubSpot's OOO Email Generator if you’re feeling stuck, and remember, an out-of-office email doesn’t need to be boring. On the contrary, it should inform and entertain. You don’t want people hating on you because you took a much-needed break.
It’s very likely that you’ll set up an auto-reply message while you’re at a conference or any other business event. What’s more, some of your prospects will be there as well, so you should use an opportunity like that to meet them in person and strengthen that relationship.
In the meantime, please feel free to enjoy the latest post from our blog. It has all of the information you need to integrate a cloud-connected service with your smart home device (plus a definitive guide on how our product can help).
But I’ve also seen this tactic used for a week’s vacation, which seems… aggressive.
Having a professional automated message when you are busy enough to answer customer queries right away can set the right tone for your business and inform customers when they can expect to receive the response.
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The head of llama engagement called my boss and reamed her out for my “poor behaviour” and then called me and reamed me out, too. She said it didn’t matter if project X was the biggest thing our company did all year – her requests took precedence.
Are you going on leave or vacation, or perhaps you are sick or traveling to remote areas or attending an event that would prevent you from responding to emails as fast as you normally do; this set of out-of-office email examples will guide you on how to create your own out-of-office email autoresponder:
To help you fully unplug from email, we’ve compiled six of the best out-of-office message examples that are perfectly suited to you, your company, and this vacation-heavy time of year.
I will be out of the office until *date*. My colleague *Name* will be happy to assist you.
So there you have it! While having fun with your auto-responder, try not to get carried away and end up upsetting anyone or get in trouble with HR! 😉
But really, I think people who know you WFH will get your meaning and people who don’t know you WFH won’t care or feel misled if they find out you really work from home.
So, not the literal first second I’m back at my desk. But as soon as I can, depending on where you land once I’ve taken a look at everything and set some priorities.
Have you ever received or written an out-of-office message that you really liked? If you’re up to sharing them, we’d love to see your favorites. Don’t forget to share this post with friends and colleagues!