There are multiple ways to craft your out-of-office message, but there are a couple of standard best practices to follow that will ensure you don’t come back to angry or confused customers, coworkers, or vendors.
But what if you’re only taking off one day? Sometimes, it might seem silly to bother with an out-of-office for such a short amount of time–especially if it’s a day that a lot of other people are taking off (such as a national holiday). If people do need you to get back to them urgently, they’ll think they’re being ignored. (Even if you define “urgently” differently.) And if there’s a chance of an emergency landing in your inbox, it’ll be that much harder for you to unplug because you’ll just keep “checking in.”
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Unfortunately I didn’t save it, but I once received of office reply that included a synopsis of the “comedic novel” they were working on during their time off.
I am currently out of the store on holidays.We will get back to work on (insert date). If there is something urgent, you can inform me by sending me an email me with the “URGENT” reference in its title and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
We have all been there, hitting your head against the wall, trying to come up with something professional yet with a personal touch so you don’t sound like a robot. The faster you are done with it, the faster you can run away from work. Think think think!
This email is humorous because anyone going on a family trip knows the ups and downs of having everyone together on the table. Harry’s both sarcastic and light-hearted same time giving us this amazing getaway auto-reply that most of us couldn’t agree more to:
The tone of your out-of-office auto-reply may vary depending on the intended recipient of your email.
I’ll get back to you when I return to civilization. Or to an area with WiFi. Or to the office on May 10th. Whichever comes first.
My OOO is almost always “I’m out of the office and will be returning on x date.” My email sig has instructions along the lines of “for questions on x, email this list” for a couple of the more common areas people would contact me about that might need an urgent reply (as the lists go to more than just me, obviously), but most people have finally figured out to contact those lists to start with, anyway. If I were in the middle of a project or something that needed to be moved along in my absence, the project teams usually know when we’re out, but I’d put a back up in that case, if needed, but generally there’s not much to be gained by a longer OOO from me.
While it’s vital that you get the main points across in any vacation email, brevity is important. If you’re looking for something a little more to-the-point, try this one:
I’m on vacation until July 18th. If you need to reach me, here’s what you’ll need to do: First, travel to my homeland of Florida. Climb to the highest peak of the tallest mountain. Find a rare flower (no specifics, of course... It’d be cheating). Put the flower back, because as the old hiking rule goes, “Leave everything as you found it.”
Voicemail is also horrible for non-native speakers. I’m reasonably fluent in German but have to listen to voicemails at least 3 times to get everything. Why people can’t just type a text message is beyond me.
Not an out of office, but I had a sign I used to put on my closed door whenever I was head down on something and didn’t want to be disturbed:
Here's an auto-reply I created for my support account having some fun. But also throwing out an extra lifeline on the off chance I'm eaten by a bear. If the boss doesn't notice I'm missing, surely people emailing me will, right?
Remember that it’s important to choose the tone of your message based on the final recipient.
I’m tempted to make out a “SUPER DUPER HELPFUL COWORKER” certificate to hand to them.
When I worked in a federally-regulated industry that required drug testing, we always tended to say “our drug program” when we should have been saying, “drug abatement program.”