That would drive me mad. I’m okay with in meetings all day but if you’re just going home at a normal time that’s ridiculous!
The date range you're gone but more importantly . . . The day you will respond. (Pro tip: If you seriously get a ginormous volume of emails when you're away, or you're going to be gone for an extended amount of time, make sure this date is one or two days AFTER you're back from your vacation. Under promise, over deliver, do your laundry.) Alternate contact if there is an emergency. Your phone number (if you absolutely must, but I don't endorse this).
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But that sounds boring, right? Luckily, there are ways to spice up your OOO message by adding humor in just the right places.
According to The Washington Post’s self-reported survey of more than 1,000 white-collar workers, “we spend an average of 4.1 hours checking our work email each day.” That’s over 1,000 hours each year. The holidays are the perfect time to temporarily break up with your email inbox for a digital detox. Before you stress about crafting the perfect out of the office message, check out our sample templates. From professionally festive to holiday humor, we know you’ll be ready to copy, paste, and fully embrace the holiday season.
Agreed! A bit of warmth is fine, sure, but it’s not the place for chattiness — that’s for talking to an actual person. I want an OOO message to tell me that the person is out, when they’ll be back, and who I should contact in the meantime if need be. No objections to multiple options there, whether it’s “X for llama grooming issues and Y for llama tea parties” or “X for routine questions, Y if it’s urgent, Z if it’s an emergency,” but I want to be able to absorb the useful info quickly and move on.
The tone of your out-of-office auto-reply may vary depending on the intended recipient of your email.
5. "Hello, [Person's name] is chasing new adventures and is no longer with [Company name]. Please forward all future requests to [New or interim person's name] at [phone number]. Thank you!"
I am celebrating the season. I'll respond to your email when I return to work on [date]. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you and your loved ones have a joyous holiday.
Hello and thank you for calling, [Company Name], where [state your short company slogan]. If you know the extension of the party you are trying to reach, you may dial it at any time. To speak with a Sales representative, press 1. To reach a Customer Support agent, press 2. To reach our Billing department, press 3. If you would like to know our regular business hours and location, press 4. If you would like to speak with an Operator, press 0, or press 9 to repeat the available options. 2. Basic Customer Inquiry
Thanks for your email. I'm currently on [reason]. I'll be out of the office from [date] and will be back on [date]. For immediate assistance, please contact [person name] at [person's email]. 6 Tips for Being Productive While Working From Home 20 Powerful TED Talks to Improve Your Leadership Skills
Please note that [date], is [holiday name]. The store will be closed all day and will open again at [time] on [date]. We hope you will enjoy the holiday with your family and friends. For those of you who plan to go skiing, please come back safely.
Once I come back on *date*, I will get back to you. Maybe I can even tell you about my adventures.
I go with “offline” or “away” (away…to my couch). I like closing the door, though!
The autoresponder messages give information like how long the person you are reaching is unavailable and who else is the person in the absence and from when will the person be back available. Make sure the message is not too lengthy and is set up easily and conveniently understood by the email users. Try to manage your absence in such a way that the client doesn’t get affected and uninformed.
Don't be afraid to use a pop cultural reference that the audience would recognize. Instead of bemoaning your absence, they'll have something fun and familiar to laugh at.
I know a lot of people who never vacation for more than a few days because the email backlog becomes incredibly stressful upon their return; this is one way to meaningfully combat that which is somewhat in the employee’s control.
This workaround will take care of auto-reply messages for phone calls and messages to the iPhone. There are a lot of users using iCloud emails on iPhone and Mac. You can set a vacation auto-reply on the iCloud email account. Let’s see how to set automatic vacation messages on iCloud email.