Q. Will administrative offices be open, in case there is some type of emergency during winter break?
As an employer one of our policies is to Call in absent days not text them in. This hasn’t worked well as employees ( especially young employees) will still text in those types of messages. It would be wonderful to have a feature in the iPhone that allows for instant text response that can be set up for certain contacts( employees). Something similar to an out of office message in email…” I am not receiving text, please call … … …. and speak to me directly”
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I’ve had people inform me that my OOO is up during a period that I was still away. Yea I’m aware my systems are set to send an OOO message, it’s doing its job if you got it.
[Tweet: “Are you going on holiday? Learn the best tips for writing your next out-of-office auto-reply email in English.”]
Thank you for your email. I’ll be offline through mid-January without access to email. In the interim, please contact Maya Schwartz, a sales and marketing manager here, at [email protected].
6. Maternity leave out of office template. Taking maternal leave, and indeed any parental leave, often means more time off work than standard annual leave.
How about a little retro concrete poetry – you know, where you arrange your words on the screen to form an image of a palm tree or a pina colada?
We also had company wide announcements that all of Spain was going on holiday in July, and then France would be gone on August, so please wrap up any business for the summer before then :’)
Here are some suggestions for what you should always include in your auto-reply emails when you are out of the office:
I love this! I don’t think its annoying at all– its literally sharing the mission of your work.
Don’t you worry: while I pretend to be Santa in front of my kids, my colleague, Hannah, will cover for me. Just email her at [email protected] if you need urgent assistance.
I get why that would bug the hell out of you. But on the flip side, having worked with a lot of European colleagues who do this, it’s not that they’ll have to 8 hours of work on vacation, it’s that they won’t be working at all. So if your bit isn’t done by X date, then their bit won’t get done until they return. That’s just the culture there.
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.
I read it as coming from a person who was overly frustrated with their regular OOO being ignored. It’s one of my pet peeves – the OOO clearly says I’m not there and to contact Bob, yet the sender continues to reply, never contacts Bob, then blows up at me when I return that their work is delayed. I would love to be able to send something like this message in the letter but it wouldn’t fly at my office.
I greatly value your email and I will read it as soon as I return to my desk. Still, if you require immediate assistance, please get in touch with[Alternate Name] at [alternate email].
Use a voicemail with the capability to record several different messages. Excellent customer service takes a little extra work. The good news is, once you get your messages recorded, they are set. You may need to change your holiday greeting message to fit the season, but all of the others will be okay. Write your scripts before you record!
Except since we usually have a strict 2 GB inbox limit, that usually lasts about 2-3 months at best and then nobody can send you anything at all so it works out. (In-organization they’ll still see the OOO when they put you into the address bar, so it works out that it’s not TOO much to delete when you return.