I say “as soon as possible,” which to me means “as soon as possible after I get back to the office, make myself a coffee, throw out the milk I forgot in the fridge, chat with my colleagues a bit, check in with my boss, and triage all the new emails and VMs that came in while I was away.”
I can just about see having two OOOs: one for the actual leave time, and one for the first day you are back in the office, so people are aware you are digging yourself out of the emails and to please call or IM if it is time-sensitive.
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I do this because my industry’s norm is that people check their email on vacation, at least once or twice, but I don’t do it. I don’t have work email on my phone so it’s technically true.
Every business is unique. There’s no one single best way to tell your clients that you’re not going to be around for the next few days (weeks or months). But there’s also no denying that whatever out of office message you use right now, you could always improve it.
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.”
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.
Hope you all are fine and doing well. As we know that the festive season is arriving and we all are looking forward to the holidays. These holidays will allow us all to enjoy the great season and have some amazing time with family and friends. This email is to inform you [all] that the office will be closed for [X] days from [DATE] to [DATE] due to the coming festive season. Our premises will remain closed for normal business from [start date] up to and including [last date]. We will start working on normal days from [DATE] and all the business practices will resume on [re-opening date]. If you have any queries related to the closure period please do not hesitate to contact me. Happy Holidays!
The worst one I ever received was from a coworker (senior to me, but not my manager) many years ago. I’ll paraphrase it as my memory isn’t great:
Website: https://www.mail-signatures.com/articles/compose-perfect-christmas-email-signature/
By the way, BizzyWeb will be closed November 26-27, December 24-25 and January 1. We promise to only use professional and appropriate out-of-office messages, and to reply as soon as we are back in the office. Happy Holidays from the Hive!
I do this when I’m on personal vacations. When I’m doing field work for research, I do tend to add a statement that I won’t have access to email/phone because I’m doing field work in X location.
Above a certain level in my agency managers have to designate an official delegate when they’re out, which can easily result in out of office messages like what you’ve listed. Not the most elegant, but clear and useful!
This used to drive my supervisor crazy, she’d email me “it looks like your OOO is still on.” I had to explain the rationale a few times before she understood.
Exactly! This may be the type of person who hears a phrase that sounds polite when referring to another, but mangles it and uses it to refer to themself so it becomes the opposite of polite.
Perhaps someone reached out to your marketing department regarding a press inquiry, guest post pitch, etc. You’ll want to be sure you’re ready with a response. Thanks for reaching out to NAPA marketing, someone will be in touch with you shortly. What can we help you with?
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3.) Bem-vindo ao John Doe AG. Nossos escritórios em Berlim estão fechados no momento devido à um feriado. Você pode nos contatar, nos dias úteis, de segunda a sexta-feira das 9h ao meio-dia e das 13:00-18:00 horas. Para informações gerais, você também pode nos enviar um e-mail em [email protected]. Muito obrigado. Te desejamos um bom dia - sua John Doe AG.