A literary agent I follow told the story of a long argument her autoreply had with a would-be author. She’d set up the outbound email while out of town and apparently an author who queried her with his book took offense to it. He replied back in frustration that he didn’t get a personal response. Her autoreply sent back another automated message, which he then in increasing anger kept responding to.
While the sender waits for your response to their email, take the sting out of your absence by involving them in a holiday survey, like the one below.
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Apologies, but I am currently knee deep in sushi and shrines on the other side of the world in Japan. I will be back to the usual tea and crumpets when I return to the office on [DAY OF WEEK], [DATE]. If you have an urgent query about [BUSINESS] before then, please don’t hesitate to contact [NAME] in my absence. [EMAIL]. Thanks so much.
Even the most blunt Out Of Office responders can still offer some levity or can at least entertain. If you’re looking to spice up your OOO, try this wonderful Wikipedia OOO generator that Melody Joy Kramer and Alex Hollender built. It auto-generates an OOO response with either a link or a quote pulled from Wikipedia. It’s a cool little project and a nice starter template for you when you decide to tell everyone to buzz off and leave you alone for a bit.
Welcome to the first blog in our new miniseries, ‘Big Little Things,’ where we highlight some of the smaller features and enhancements in Vtiger CRM ...
Don’t forget our office and Contact Centre will be closed tomorrow; [date], for the public holiday. You can still use our internet banking, mobile app and phone banking during this time.
ImpactImpactThis nonprofit renovates abandoned Baltimore houses—and then sells them at a discount to local residentsImpactThis program is testing what happens when you give cash to people leaving prisonImpactThese Nobel Prize-winning economists explain why direct cash transfers are so vital to fighting poverty
How about a little retro concrete poetry – you know, where you arrange your words on the screen to form an image of a palm tree or a pina colada?
Humorous Vacation Message. While you shouldn’t use a vacation message like the first example in this article, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a little bit of fun with your emails.
I will be on leave returning Monday, August 10th. Please anticipate a delay in response. For urgent requests or escalations, please contact:
I wrote the above comment off the top of my head. I wish I had time to rewrite and edit it. I would have changed “their goldfish” to “a spider they accidentally stepped on”, and would have added more detail to the story of the sister’s death (e.g. “her Pomeranian yapping” rather than the less descriptive “her dog barking”). Unfortunately, I could not do the thorough writing job required for that comment because someone close to me recently … – The person whose out of office advertised his gig on the weekend, for anyone in travelling to [city] – The people in a certain department who have taken to saying things like “if you really need to contact me, call 000-YYY-XXXX where Y is the square root of [insert numbers] and X is the year plutonium was discovered.” – The ones where people have an auto response saying they only check their emails once a day between 1-2pm – “I’m on research leave and I may be slow to reply.” (Whereby it is guaranteed they will reply immediately, because academics do not *really* take breaks).
If you’re out sick or caring for a loved one, you may not feel comfortable sharing the details. You can simply use words like “family situation” or “family matters,” which Smith says automatically garner some goodwill.
Supervisors with employees who work during winter break should track hours using the Winter Break Hours Tracking spreadsheet. Please follow the instructions provided and contact your Human Resources consultant with any questions.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was funny and not annoying! I’m with Alison that it’s probably just a little wordy, but there’s no problem with the humor.
I’d side-eye if an OOO for a couple of days off said that, unless someone was in an unusually time-sensitive role. But if someone’s out for long enough that there’s an alternate contact provided, that’s long enough for them not to be wading through missed emails when they get back.
Thanks for your email. I’m currently out of the office, returning on [date]. I’ll respond to your message then.