That’s what always got me! There always seemed to be an air of preemptive defensiveness? I’m definitely reading a lot into it based on other ways this person showed up in the workplace and how they treated others. Also I completely agree that some things are more important than work (!), but there was something about the way these were phrased that made me feel like ……… okay?? I know??? It just felt … performative.
7.) Bem-vindo ao escritório de advocacia John Doe. Desculpe, no momento não podemos atender a sua chamada, pois você está ligando durante nosso feriado anual. Você pode nos enviar um e-mail em para info @ Lawoffice-john doe.de – que entraremos em contato o mais rápido possível quando retornarmos. Em casos urgentes, entre em contato com o nosso representante de escritório. Eles podem ser encontrados em nosso site www.law office-john doe.de. Muito obrigado pela sua ligação - Adeus.
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19. "Hello, you've reached [your name]. I'm currently [exploring Asia, hiking through the jungle in Costa Rica, hanging out on the beach in Bermuda] — or more likely, [recovering from extreme jet lag, googling ‘Are red spiders poisonous,' or looking for SPF 150 sunscreen] and won't be back in the office until [date]. Leave your contact info and reason for calling and I'll get in touch then."
Did you email me about [SERVICE]? Great! Read what our customers are saying about how awesome their experience has been. [LINK TO TESTIMONIALS]. Best Regards.
What’s the beef against part time staff? I am part time and I think it’s a courtesy to let correspondents know when I am at my desk. I also appreciate getting it from other people as I can either escalate or make s mental note of when I expect to hear back.
I once left a kind of breezy, fun out of office message for “people inside my organization” that said the literal truth: “I am out of office this week at a mountain resort where I have paid many hundreds of dollars for someone to take my electronics away from me. I’ll get back to you Monday,” and a very normal and professional OOO for “people outside my organization.” Needless to say I returned to a message from a senior (but not, I stress, my boss or even on my team) colleague calling me out on it. People surely can make things their business.
I will be out of the office this week. If you need assistance while I’m away, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL].
Hello, We are currently closed for the holiday. If it’s something urgent you can email [name] at [email]. Kind regards. [Name/signature]
Think about whether you want to leave a forwarding email, which is helpful for dealing with any loose ends you forgot about, in the excitement of leaving.
While it’s vital that you get the main points across in any vacation email, brevity is important. If you’re looking for something a little more to-the-point, try this one:
My European colleagues get an extended summer holiday all at the same time, which means we get OOO notes like this:
I think this is great. A little too long, but it would work well as an internal reply in a large office with the right kinda culture. I’m imagining how useful it would be in my previous office with 300+ people that always had some “fire” or another to put out. I also appreciate how it protects the sender’s time off–at no point does it say “ok, fine. contact me.”
In this image, you’re letting people know you’re OOO with a “Missing” notice on a milk carton. Genius. Just be careful — this sort of autoresponder is best for internal emails, not for autoresponders that get sent to prospects and clients.
As long as you’ve covered the basics—dates of your absence and who to contact in your absence—you should be good to go.
Crafting an out of office message can be plenty of fun and we're about to show you how with our Mad Libs version!
Naturally, she had to take the day off — and couldn’t let folks know with any old generic auto-response. Instead, she made a guessing game of it in her out-of-office email, which you can use for yourself, below.
I’ll be unreachable for a few days starting on December 11th because I’ll be at Growth Marketing Conference. I’ll have limited ability to return phone calls and emails until I return on December 13th, but if you want to talk accounting software options or learn all about the latest growth marketing tactics and tips when I return, please shoot me an email. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. If you need immediate assistance, please contact my assistant Megan White at 971-841-0098, or at [email protected].