I get really annoyed at people that don’t have put up OOO messages and I am left wondering if they are out or just ignoring me. I collaborated with a woman who was out frequently but never put an OOO. She also got very prickly if she felt you were going around her. So anytime we didn’t get a response from her, we had to go through this guessing game of “do we wait, do we talk to someone else, how important is our request.” I was glad when she moved on.
I don’t think it’s rude to do the deletion, but it’s pretty rude to not give some sort of Plan B besides “Wait until I decide I am ready to deal with you.” I’m sure it feels lovely to set up if you’ve usually got a lot of annoying people clamoring for your time on matters that aren’t nearly as urgent as they think, but to not even offer a “in case this is urgent, contact X” fig leaf just shows you don’t care.
.
I just say out of the office. It helps that I have a room that, among other things, functions as an office, but I don’t think that would change my reply. Whether its a real or metaphorical office, you’re still not at work, so it counts.
Boss would put up an OOO when attending an event off-site, but would still be answering their emails, which meant that I would get “Boss said you were the correct contact, can you help?” Inevitably, I would respond and, two hours later, Boss would too, cc-ing me on the original email in which they shared the exact same info I had earlier that day. It was MADDENING.
If you have the opportunity to come, let me know — I’d love the chance to connect with you.
Perhaps I’m you guys’ worst nightmare, but for the past couple of years I’ve been writing haikus for my OOO, which give a flavour of what I’m out doing. A couple of examples:
10 Best Out Of Office Message Examples Auto Reply Emails For Vacations And Holidays Futureofworking Com 65 Best Office Closed for Holiday Messages for Your Customers & Clients By Victoria Akpan TMLT March 22, 2021 Lifestyle 0 Comments
Whether you’re off sick, away on training or somewhere blissfully sunny, you’ll need to set-up your ‘Out of Office’ auto-reply. Most people tend to go with the boring and basic formula of apologies and redirection to someone else who might be able to help. We’ve scoured the internet and gathered 10 of our favourite responses. After reading these, you might rethink your own!
2.) Bienvenido/a John Doe. Por vacaciones de empresa nuestros no volveremos a estar disponibles hasta el lunes día 4 de julio de 2016. El envío de los pedidos se reanudará el 1 de noviembre de 2016. Mientras tanto nos puede enviar sus peticiones por correo electrónico [email protected] o a través de nuestro formulario de contacto. ¡Muchas gracias! de Berlín están cerradas por vacaciones. Puede contactar con nosotros de lunes a viernes de 9:00h a 12:00h y de 13:00h a 18:00h. Para cuestiones generales también puede enviarnos un coreo electrónico a [email protected]. Muchas gracias. Le deseamos que tenga un buen día. Su empresa John Doe AG.
I’ll be back in front of my computer on [date] and will respond to your message then. If you require immediate assistance, please feel free to send an email to [Contact Name] at [contact email] so that they can help you out.
I’ve never been a fan of the ones where people basically say “I’m working, but super busy right now, so I won’t get to your email for X (hours, days, whatever). Like, are you THAT busy.
It’s wise to check they aren’t though. A colleague once had an out of office from an academic that simply said ‘on fieldwork’. Just those two words.
What would be annoying would be receiving multiple emails from me to see if the pet changes each time the OoO is triggered, along with follow-up emails from me inquiring about Fluffiekins’s adoption status. :-) Otherwise, this is BRILLIANT. And on brand.
I have a coworker that purposely leaves them on the first day that she’s back in the office (even though it said she would be back today) because she thinks it signals that she’s still unavailable (while she needs some time to catch up.) I think it’s a bit confusing. I personally would feel weird doing it because it seems like I just never came back from vacation.
I worked somewhere that required we use them when we left for the day or if we were in meetings all day. It was rather annoying to do every single day. Now I am not at a place that requires it thankfully. I will often put one up if I leave early or if I am arriving late. Also if I am actually out of the office I will also put one up.
Over time, I began to suspect that those who might be telling the truth (of which I suspected there were very few), would mention their relationship to the person and possibly the cause, for example “My grandmother just passed away after surgery.” The ones who left it wide open (“someone close has recently died”) led me to imagine that it could be a random person in their city that they read about in the news, their goldfish, or perhaps a distant relative who had passed away in the previous few years.
6. Maternity leave out of office template. Taking maternal leave, and indeed any parental leave, often means more time off work than standard annual leave.