Ta-da, you are done! You are one step closer to your vacation. Remember, just because you are away, it doesn’t mean you cannot make someone’s day with a funky OOO email!
On a serious note… sailing vacations are the best for no access/contact vacations. I heartily endorse them!
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Before you trade your office pass for a YouTrip card, you’d need to first power through your to-do list and prepare a super swee handover for your team. Then all is good, right? Not quite. You don’t have the right to exclaim “pang gang oh” and disconnect from work just yet 🙅
Except since we usually have a strict 2 GB inbox limit, that usually lasts about 2-3 months at best and then nobody can send you anything at all so it works out. (In-organization they’ll still see the OOO when they put you into the address bar, so it works out that it’s not TOO much to delete when you return.
We also had to reply to any emails we received within 4 hours. Even if we didn’t have an answer.
Because of this, typical out-of-office replies will often split the difference between our hopes and fears and say something like: “I’m out of the office and can be reached but if you need assistance right away, please contact x person.”
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(Email Signature) 3. Memorial Day Closed Email. Our office will be closed on Monday, May 31st in observance of Memorial Day. We will reopen on Tuesday, June 1st at 8:00 a.m. Our sincere gratitude to those brave men and woman who have served our country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Best regards, (Email Signature) Overview: Your Memorial Day
I used to work with someone who had a message telling people she only checked her email twice a day. You pretty much needed to call her if you needed anything outside of those times. (She worked in a remote office.) I think she had read one of those books on efficiency that recommended scheduled email time. But there were problems with this: 4. My department often had to email attachments or text to illustrate our questions/concerns. And we were on deadlines. Reading a page of text over the phone was not an efficient use of anyone’s time 5. She did outreach & was often out of the office on site visits, trainings, or travel to these places, but never ever set her OOO for these, because she was “working.” However, she was effectively not available to read emails from other staff until after hours on those days.
But I’ve also seen this tactic used for a week’s vacation, which seems… aggressive.
In this email, you’re a UPS package getting delivered to your vacation destination. Ah, I wish UPS offered this service.
Setting a proper out-of-office email also puts pressure off you when you have limited time to respond to emails outside the office. We will look at a few examples together here:
Happy Holidays is used only around Christmas in the USA. Traditionally, it was meant to include both Christmas and New Year's Day. We don't usually say "Happy Holiday" at other times, although there's nothing wrong with saying it.
12 Examples of Professional Out of Office Emails – Permanent and Temporary Autoresponses
Use the time away with no employees working to restart equipment such as computers, laptops, etc. Restarts are necessary to keep updates installed and the machines running smoothly.
The idea for this one is to pick your favourite Christmas carol and repurpose it for your out-of-office response. It’s festive and sure to get a laugh! (Whatever you do, just don’t pick Baby It’s Cold Outside).
Thank you very much for your email. Currently, I cannot answer your msg promptly. I will come back to you after my return on Nov 10th.