I have always been flabbergasted by people who include vacation details (especially if they’ll be out of the country) in their OOO messages. I’m not a burglar, nor do I know any. (I hope!) But the people with the message don’t know that!
Website: https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/setting-up-vacation-and-holiday-call-rules/
.
Let’s say you’re a CFO headed to Cancun for your annual vacation. You write an OOO message that contains: The dates of your departure and return Contact information for a colleague that will be available in your absence Some details about your destination
EnergyFinancialsHealthIndustrialsMediaProfessional ServicesRetail & ConsumerTech SectorTelecomsTransportTech
That’s what I always reasoned… better to annoy with too much information that saves hassle on the backend then be brief upfront and sentence people to OoO purgatory.
A. International House’s front desk will be open for students 24 hours each day throughout winter break, except on the holidays – Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. However, there will be professional staff on call 24 hours a day throughout the break to adequately serve students. The Front Desk may be contacted at 419.530.1600; this phone will be answered 24/7, even when the desk is closed on both holidays.
No liability is accepted due to the information in this website. Click here for our privacy policy.
The message will be automatically triggered in response to any incoming text received while the away message is turned on. Like this:
This is the dream. If I could do this, I would! I hate voicemails (and the phone in general) so, so much!
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.
And, although it’s fine to include certain details (e.g. what you’re doing), it’s vital to keep it professional. After all, this email will be sent to anyone who contacts you – so it’s not the place for inside jokes.
My phone just sits there gathering dust, so the only OOO message I need is the one I put in my email. Something like “I’ll read my email again on X. If you need assistance before then, please contact my colleague NN.”
What we need in our work communication is not more professional politeness or less formal, chat-based messaging applications like Slack. We need honesty. The problem is that we’ve conditioned ourselves to see honesty as self-indulgent or disrespectful. I’d argue the opposite is true. Honesty, even if it’s a bit more inconvenient for all parties in the moment, pays dividends later. It builds trust. When my partner Anne Helen Petersen and I were interviewing people for our forthcoming book on remote work, a frequent lament from both middle managers and workers was that they didn’t feel like they knew how to succeed in their jobs; that they were guessing what their superiors and coworkers wanted and, even when they asked, they didn’t quite trust the responses they got back.
A. Nearly all offices will be closed on Main Campus during winter break; therefore, each department should ensure their telephone messages and out-of-office email replies reflect that their office is closed but resuming normal business hours after New Year's Day. They may also want to note their winter break closure on their webpage.
But you don’t need to write an instruction guide for people as though they’re incapable of solving their own problems without you.
Are you creating a voicemail greeting for your entire company or team? These business voicemail greetings will do the trick.
By bringing some automation into the process, you not only ensure that your staff is leaving vacation email messages that cover what’s needed, but you’re also eliminating the possibility that team members will forget to turn them on.