Not an out of office, but I had a sign I used to put on my closed door whenever I was head down on something and didn’t want to be disturbed:
It’s my favorite time of year, which means I’m currently out of the office chugging mugs of choco, stuffing my face with fruit salads and cakes, and attempting to fulfill my lifelong goal of memorizing every single line of [your favorite holiday movie].
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When Amy Spurling, cofounder of the company perks software company Compt, went on vacation, she ended her message with a clear direction about who to contact: “If you need immediate help, please contact [name and email address]. I will be responding to all emails on my return.”
The root of that question, as pointed out in this New York Times article, is that taking vacation can be a bit emotionally conflicting.
I don’t set my voicemail message, either. If you have the number, you know me. I think my last voicemail message on my personal cellular phone years ago was not even in English. Again, if you knew me, you’d more than half expect it.
Written by Aja Frost @ajavuu
I have no idea how to update my voicemail message and I don’t actually know what it says. I occasionally get voicemails that are automatically forwarded to my email as sound files but I don’t think I have ever had a business related voicemail land there (it is rare that I get calls from outside the company and most people in the company if they can’t reach me on the phone will IM me directly–we use Teams for both phone and messaging).
I’m tempted to make out a “SUPER DUPER HELPFUL COWORKER” certificate to hand to them.
Yup. That’s almost verbatim what I do. It’s the standard around here and now I’m grateful for that!
2.) Bem-vindo a John Doe. Devido ao recesso da empresa, nosso time de serviço estará disponível para você à partir de segunda-feira, 2016/07/04. O envio das encomendas começará novamente em 2016/01/11. Durante este período, você pode enviar seu pedido para o nosso e-mail [email protected] ou através do nosso formulário de contato. Muito obrigado!
“The purpose isn’t to let people know you’re out of the office, it’s to let them know you're not going to be responding,” says Muse career coach Benjamin Ritter, founder of Live for Yourself Consulting. It’s not about where you are physically, but rather whether or not you’ll see someone’s email and be available to react to it within a typical timeframe (which could differ depending on your role, company, and industry).
Image Source: https://www.yesware.com/wp-content/uploads/out-of-office-example-8.png
Wherever you go on holiday, you’ll probably have access to the internet at some point. You might want to acknowledge this in your O.O.O. – but it’s also worth forcing the sender to question if it’s really worth interrupting your holiday by setting up a very blunt alternative inbox... I know I’m supposed to say that I’ll have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond until I return, but that’s not true. My iPhone will be with me and I can respond if I need to. And I recognise that I’ll probably need to interrupt my vacation from time to time to deal with something urgent. That said, I promised my wife that I am going to try to disconnect, get away and enjoy our vacation as much as possible. So, I’m going to experiment with something new. I’m going to leave the decision in your hands: • If your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please resend it to [email protected] and I’ll try to respond to it promptly. • If you think someone else at First Round Capital might be able to help you, feel free to email my assistant, Fiona, and she’ll try to point you in the right direction.
Thanks for your email. I’ll be away from the office until [DATE] and will respond as soon as I can. For all support requests/needs, please reach out to [EMAIL] and one of my colleagues will be happy to assist you. If you’re interested in signing up for [PRODUCT], feel free to reach out to my manager [NAME] at [EMAIL]. You can learn more about [COMPANY NAME] presence here. Don’t forget to smile!
When you’ve finally powered your way through that seemingly endless to-do list and are ready to check out of work-mode once and for all, there’s one final thing you need to take care of: Setting your out-of-office response.
As a side note, I put a similar message on my work and cell phones, and once I didn’t change the cell message back for nearly a year. (It was my personal cell number, and only my parents ever left messages.)
Pro tip: The first works well for both voicemail greetings and email responders, while the next two are most appropriate for emails.