As a “don’t try this at home” anecdote, last week we had an all staff retreat, and we were asked to put up away messages. I put a perfectly professional one up for outside email, but in a fit of whimsy, the internal mail triggered an away message that said “Why are you emailing? We are supposed to be paying attention to the retreat!” I figured, we were all at the retreat, so nobody would ever know. Of course, someone did email me 30 minutes before everything started, and triggered the message. Fortunately, he figured out it was an away message and thought it was funny.
I saved this one for the last example. It’s exactly what anyone would like to say when an associate messages them regarding any work during the holiday season. It talks about the ‘me time’ and also shares empathy for the sender. Especially, asking the sender to order the Pepperoni Pizza after stating the date of return is a fab movie. One of the best ways to display empathy is being humorous as it doesn’t put the other person into pressure- it makes way for helping them take the situation lightly!
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Write a short, direct subject line.State your purpose for writing.Include the dates you're requesting.Consider mentioning why you're taking time off.Discuss how you're preparing for time off.Remain available for questions.
Thank you for your e-mail! I’m out of the office and will have limited access to my e-mail. I will respond to you upon my return.
Need to set up a generic away message for times you’re away from the phone or need to refocus your attention? Simply throw this template up for a few hours to buy yourself some time. Thank you for contacting Lulu’s, you’ve reached Anne. I’m out of the office currently, but I will respond to your message by 3 pm. Thank you for your patience!
Of course I’ll still be glad to hear from you – try me at this email: [insert email].
To set an automatic reply for contacts outside your company, select Outside My Organization > Auto-reply to people outside my organization, type in a message, and select OK.
The dialogue “You may remember me from..” by Troy McClure is uncannily iconic for all Simpsons fans. It has also evolved into an autoresponder saga. By the time the reader realizes that they are going to wait a while, they would have already had the fun of reading this hilarious convo. Have a look at this funny out of office reply and see if your associates would love to hear it:
I dunno, this is one of those areas I feel like people overanalyze. Like, yes, there are definitely some away messages that make me raise an eyebrow and I really don’t want anyone’s medical history. I’m not a huge fan of the one from the LW cause it’s a bit cutesy and takes too long to get to the point — I prefer short and sweet. But some people also just…struggle with how to put together an away message and copy what their boss does. Or they’re like me — I need a message that works for clients as well, so mine needs to be a little more formal, even if my office isn’t.
Website: https://www.statuswallpapers.com/4th-of-july-closed-sign-holiday-sign-for-workplace/
I will be out of the office this week. If you need immediate assistance while I’m away, please email (Contact Email Address).
This is what I’ve seen most often in my career. Problem is, the contact is almost always the admin. I’m the admin. Everyone’s idea of assistance is different. Often, I didn’t have the knowledge about the issue in order to be of any assistance. I wound up spending more time running around looking for answers than actually working on what was on my own plate. It’s exhausting. Otherwise known as “please don’t call us for unicorn problems when we handle llamas. Literally, we can’t do anything for unicorn problems.”
You have to manually turn on DND mode from Control Panel. The iPhone will start to send the auto-reply to incoming messages and calls.
Also, IMO, it’s putting the burden of knowing and managing your schedule on the other person. You expect them to be paying enough attention to you to remember when you come back and to resend their request. That’s not reasonable.
I guess my first instinct might be thinking it’s rude but having seen it a few times I do get it. It really makes sense for people who get dozens or hundreds of emails a day and are gone for extended periods of time. It’s more courteous to be up front about it than silently delete like some people said they do (though I get they maybe just didn’t realize they’d need to do that).
Website: https://smith.ai/blog/28-business-voicemail-greetings-for-main-office-and-personal-numbers-formal-informal-modern-and-just-hilarious
Hi, Thanks for your email. I am out of the office right now and will not return until [MM/DD]. Fortunately for you, our resources never take time off and we’ve got this awesome [ebook/brochure/infographic/etc] that I think you would enjoy. I’ll reply to you as soon as I get back into the office.