My mother who is still working at 70 has the best out of office emails. As a nervous millennial I tend to be like ‘hi I’m having surgery but will still be checking my emails’ and hers are just ‘I’m taking a break from work. Be back June 2″
That is kind of glorious. And it does make sense when the person you’re emailing is gone for months. I did something similar my last mat leave except I didn’t explicitly state it, and lo and behold, people figured out that I wasn’t going to catch their email from a month or so earlier unless they brought it up again.
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Okay. Before you go into fancyland or funnyland about how you're in the woods protecting yourself against bears, remember Rule 1! Make sure you have all the pertinent details in your out of office message.
To set an automatic reply for contacts outside your company, select Outside My Organization > Auto-reply to people outside my organization, type in a message, and select OK.
ObjectiveApplies ToProcedureSetting Up a Holiday ScheduleManaging Holiday Schedule RulesManage Auto Attendant Holiday GreetingsRecording Special Holiday GreetingsUploading Special Holiday GreetingsForwarding Calls to an Announcement-Only Greeting ObjectiveApplies ToProcedureSetting Up a Holiday ScheduleManaging Holiday Schedule RulesManage Auto Attendant Holiday GreetingsRecording Special Holiday GreetingsUploading Special Holiday GreetingsForwarding Calls to an Announcement-Only Greeting Note: To set up a holiday schedule for your Auto Attendant in Account Manager, the legacy version of 8x8 Admin Console, click here.
The incensed people also tended to be the type to submit things at the very last minute or want an immediate answer that could’ve been solved via google.
But what should you do to keep the message informative, engaged and maybe a little festive?
Yes! I remember reading here the phrase: the default mode of clever is asshole. Meaning when trying to be clever backfires, you end up just looking like an asshole. I’ve given up the need to get laughs at my clever sense of humor while at work. I really hope that out of office message is for internal emails only, because the risk of this landing badly is too high.
You probably received a number of these emails, and thus you should be familiar with the information out-of-office emails provide.
As CEO of a company, it is customary to send out organization-wide holiday wishes to all employees. If you are feeling stumped on what to say, check out these warm holiday greetings that you can send to your team.
If you have critical projects that can’t wait until you return, offer a communication option like text messages, suggests Reeves. “I have found, to my delight, that people really are judicious about texting you while on vacation,” he says, with one caveat. “Don’t put your mobile number in the away message. That way, only people who have your mobile number can text you. And those are the ones you care most about.”
Website: http://www.effective-business-letters.com/Letter-Informing-about-Holiday-Closure.html
7. Out of office lead generation and content promotion templates. As with email signatures, out of office messages can be used for lead generation purposes and promoting new content.
Hahahahaha, reminds me of the time the entire giant department (hundreds of people) had to sit through a SLIDE SHOW of a higher up’s trip to Europe, in person. They sent a survey afterwards–thankfully anonymous–and I said it was extremely inappropriate to make us sit through his holiday snaps when most of us can’t go on vacation at all and it was supposed to be a WORK meeting.
I worked with a guy years ago who would update his voicemail greeting literally every time he left the office. So the bare minimum would be that he’d record a new message when he arrived in the office in the morning. Then, when leaving for lunch he’d record a new greeting listing the time he would be back in the office, then he’d record a new message when he got back from lunch, then a new one at the end of the day saying he would be back in the morning. That’s not even counting the times he was out of the office on work business. It was deranged, especially since he had the type of job where he would normally be in and out of the office often.
My old job was like that! It was so, so annoying. I understood requiring us to update our voicemails if we were out of the office that day, but it was just a waste of a few minutes every single morning.
I will be out of the office from DATE LEAVING to DATE RETURNING. I wanted to assure you that I have handed off all important information off to DELEGATE’S NAME while I am away. Should you have any questions or need anything during this time, please feel free to contact DELEGATE’S NAME and they will do their best to assist you.