If it’s anything less than a business day, it just becomes this extra beacon of our completely toxic and out of whack work culture that insists we be reachable every second.
Honest communication, even in the form of an email auto reply, is a roadmap. It helps people understand how best to help you and, in turn, allows them to better help themselves. Straightforward expectation setting is a way to be respectful of your coworkers’ time and pressures, but most importantly, it’s a way to be respectful of and guard your time. Even if you don’t feel an intense need to be more open in your workplace correspondence, consider modeling the behavior for others who work with you or, especially, those who work for you. It’s a small change in behavior but it’s a meaningful one. And this summer is the perfect time to start.
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3.) Benvenuti alla John Doe AG. I nostri uffici a Berlino sono chiusi per ferie. Potete contattarci nei giorni lavorativi dal Lunedì al Venerdì dalle 9am a mezzogiorno e dall’1pm alle 6pm. Per informazioni di carattere generale potete anche inviarci una e-mail a [email protected]. Grazie. Vi auguriamo una buona giornata – vostro John Doe AG.
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.”
That’s also annoying because if it’s not someone I interact with regularly I will wonder if it’s been left on by accident.
If you’re out for several days, then sure, say when you’ll be back and leave info for who to contact in the meantime.
I wrote the above comment off the top of my head. I wish I had time to rewrite and edit it. I would have changed “their goldfish” to “a spider they accidentally stepped on”, and would have added more detail to the story of the sister’s death (e.g. “her Pomeranian yapping” rather than the less descriptive “her dog barking”). Unfortunately, I could not do the thorough writing job required for that comment because someone close to me recently … – The person whose out of office advertised his gig on the weekend, for anyone in travelling to [city] – The people in a certain department who have taken to saying things like “if you really need to contact me, call 000-YYY-XXXX where Y is the square root of [insert numbers] and X is the year plutonium was discovered.” – The ones where people have an auto response saying they only check their emails once a day between 1-2pm – “I’m on research leave and I may be slow to reply.” (Whereby it is guaranteed they will reply immediately, because academics do not *really* take breaks).
7. Only for you. Exclusivity is a powerful thing, and marketers have known this for a long time. The holiday sales season is a perfect moment to remind your contacts that being on your list has its perks.
Here are five ways to help prepare your business and your clients for your vacation or time off. Schedule your absence ahead of time. Set the expectations with clients. Send a “last call” email the week before you leave. Don't take on new clients or tasks right before you leave. Stand your ground when you are gone.
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.
By now, your neighbourhood supermarket is probably already blasting the classic Christmas tunes, your favourite colleagues are on vacation many miles away, and you’re counting down the days till you get to clear your annual leave 😏
(Aside: at my job, when you open a new browser window, a random picture of employee pets pops up. It changes every time. I could just refresh all day long.)
An out-of-office message is an automatic response to emails you receive that lets the sender know you’re not currently working.
I once emailed someone I barely knew to check on some materials he was supposed to send my boss and I received an auto-reply letting the world know that he was away in Vegas with his “boyz” to celebrate his divorce. I still don’t know why he felt this was important to share with business contacts. “I’m away for the week” was all the information I needed.
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:
8. Standard Out of the Office Email Template. [Greeting] I will be out of the office beginning on (Date of Leave) through (Return Date). For all time-sensitive matters, please contact (Contact Person) at (Contact Email Address).
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