Does your company publish blogs or offer downloadable ebooks, reports, or case studies? If so, add a P.S. to the end of your vacation message linking your readers to some content they can learn from or engage with.
Being a responsible netizen or professional in the Internet age also means leaving useful clues and messages for your email correspondents whenever you will be out of reach temporarily or permanently. Remember that your email correspondents expect you to respond within minutes or, at most, 24 hours of receiving their emails unless specifically stated in the email that you are free to respond much later.
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The hours in your signature is a great idea! I’m about to have a non-standard work schedule to accommodate medical appointments. Totally stealing this idea!
If you want to learn how to set up your OOO message with a self-hosted email, you can follow our quick guide called How to Create Email AutoResponder in cPanel.
I’m guessing that this comment was gratuitously cruel on purpose just for the lulz, but I’ll give it a serious response anyway:
I work in fundraising for after the standard Im out until X, contact Y in the meantime, I also list ways people can give, since thats my job.
Read our guide to setting up email on a Mac, iPhone and iPad here. Plus how to send email attachments in Mail on iPhone.
If you’re taking a vacation and staying home, your clients or coworkers may still expect you to pop into the office and answer their email. Use this autoresponder to let them know you’re really not available — even if you’re bumming around on the couch.
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If you’ve written an out-of-office message before, you’ll surely know some of the basics. For the most part, they still apply during the pandemic, with a few additional considerations. Here’s a quick overview of what you should keep in mind as you compose your autoreply these days:
I didn’t actually put that in my maternity leave out-of-office, but it is what I did when I got back.
Apart from this, try to limit the details you provide in the message. You just need to inform that you are going on a vacation; you need not give the exact plans. Also, refrain from making it funny. It can be easily misinterpreted and leave a wrong impression.
Readers, what do you like and hate in out-of-offices replies? Any stories of particularly off-key ones?
I had a colleague who simply never answered her phone or set up her voicemail. She still listed the number on her business card and email .sig, she just never answered or checked voicemail. When she took a new job another colleague inherited her phone number and when he went to set up his voicemail there were basically eight years’ worth of messages left for her that he had to delete.
Out of Office replies can be turned on very easily and even timed to expire at a designated time. But did you know you can customize your OOF so that some people do not get the auto reply, or that they get a customized reply different than the rest of the group? The steps below will show you how.
On the other hand, there may be times where you’re so embedded in a project that you truly need to stay connected while you’re out. If that’s the case, say so clearly with a message like this: “I’m away but will be checking messages regularly, so don’t hesitate to contact me directly at any time.” Saying anything less than this may cause people to try to respect your time away and work around you, which in this case could create problems.