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Some of the people I know that have a lot on their plate are able to deal with a large volume of email with intent and integrity. It’s worth taking a look at how they deal with email so you can model some of their habits. I’ve listed three people below who I know handle their email really well.
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What I really hate is when I get back to the office and haven’t taken the 10 minutes to go into our labyrinthian voicemail system, remove the out of office voicemail message, and record a new one (without being interrupted, stuttering, etc.) and some SUPER DUPER HELPFUL person feels the need to InFoRm mE in their voicemail message that I sTiLl HaVe My OuT oF oFfIcE mEsSaGe Up!!!1!
I think this was from some outside contractor: “I have decided to retire to Pluto. Please send all work related enquiries to Cecil.Mongoose at llamagroomers dot com, or if you prefer an intergalactic means of communication my personal address is fergus at pluto dot com.”
Yes, me too. It’s a lifesaver. Although to be fair, Outlook announces the fact that you’ve got an OOO message going out with a big yellow banner, so it’s quite hard to miss.
You’ll have options to set a “first day” and “last day,” or just “first day.” If you want things truly automated, picking a “last day” will trigger the autoresponder to automatically turn itself off the day after the selected date. Of course, in those instances when you’re unsure of your exact return date, it’s best to leave this open-ended. The “out of office” subject line is much less creative and scientific than say, a cold email subject line or a marketing email subject line. More often than not, they’re very plain and simple, like the following:
7.) Bienvenido/a al bufete de abogados de John Doe. Lo sentimos, en estos momentos no podemos atender su llamada personalmente ya que está llamando durante nuestro período de vacaciones anuales. Puede enviarnos un correo electrónico a [email protected]. Le contactaremos lo antes posible a la vuelta. Para casos urgentes, por favor, contacte con el representante de nuestras oficinas. Puede encontrar dicha información en nuestra página web www.lawoffice-johndoe.de. Muchísimas gracias por su llamada. Hasta pronto.
The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:
I had a manager who did exactly that for his paternity leave. I was floored, because I never thought it was an option. His attitude was that if it was important enough, the person would send it again.
Personally, I’d get a kick out of it, but I wouldn’t do something like that myself.
I know I’m so late on this, but my FAVORITE one I’ve ever gotten was from one of my company’s Presidents (so a very high up muckity muck type).
I had a peer whose auto-reply included “I will respond at my earliest convenience.” Along with other personality traits, this grated on me like nothing else. It was oddly formal for our organization and always came across as “I’ll get back to you when I feel like it.” My advising team, especially during peak times, has auto replies that sets reply expectations. With each person doing about 300 students, it makes sense even though I don’t love it.
Website: https://www.garamgroup.com/tips-after-hours-business-voicemail-auto-attendant-greetings/
My OOO messages are always pretty casual, and the last line in the list of “for X, contact Y” is always something like “for chili recipes, contact Z”.
The big issue I have with the example in the post is that not only is it unnecessarily long-winded, but you have to listen through all the chattiness to get to the “here’s who to contact in a real emergency” part. The tone does rub me wrong, but I’m willing to roll with that as a personality/company culture thing.
Alternatively, some people will check their email while on vacation. Then, the text should indicate how often people may expect their email to be seen and acted upon.
But some of us just aren’t as lucky. Or if we’re traveling during the winter and heading up north — well, we’re going to run into some snow, aren’t we?