So what makes a good automated response that will give you the reassurance you need to keep your work email under control so that you can truly enjoy your holiday?
5. It’s not all about Christmas, Cyber Monday, or Black Friday. When referring to the holidays, you might be thinking about Thanksgiving, Christmas, or maybe Hanukkah.
.
Yeah, that’s all I need to know when I’m trying to contact someone who’s out. 1) When you’re coming back so I know if my issue can wait, and 2) Where to go if I decide that it can’t.
Hello and thanks for your email. I’m out of the office right now, but will get back to you as soon as I can. Expect a reply Monday latest. (If you need something right now, please email [EMAIL]. In the meantime, check out this new [ARTICLE LINK] that our team just released last week. It’s a labor of love – one that’s short to read, easy to implement, and–most importantly–free of charge. Talk to you soon.
Due to a bank holiday, I am out of the office on 18th November. Emails won’t be forwarded and will be answered after my return on 19th November.
Sometimes people will think it’s okay to ask a quick question while you’re out of the office. Avoid the interruption by including at least one person who can answer questions in your absence.
My favorite thing is setting my OOO to only run for a specific amount of time. I will absolutely forget to turn it off if I have to do it manually, but we can just set a date/time range for it to start/stop. So I usually start it around 4 pm the day before and end it at 7 or 8pm the night before I return.
Success is a Choice 25 Best Elevator Pitch Examples for Startups and Entrepreneurs 21 Best SMART Goals for Project Managers 25 Leadership SMART Goals Examples for Managers and Employees Force Field Analysis Explained with Examples Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Explained [with Examples] 21 Best SMART Goals Examples for Teachers and Educators The 5 P’s of Marketing Explained with Examples 21 Best Active Listening Exercises with Examples 25 Professional SMART Goals Examples for Work Porter’s Five Forces Model Explained (w/ Examples of Competition Analysis)
An old boss had a pet peeve about this so I became very conscious of making sure that I listed out who to contact on what day… before the group email. So it looked something like this:
I ran a nonprofit organization staffed entirely be volunteers (I was one). After one too many people incensed that we did not follow up to their emails within two hours, we had to include an OOO message that said we were a volunteer organization, and any request may take up to two weeks to process. Please email again if you have not heard from us by then.
The plan B is to send it again when they’re back though. I think there are a lot of situations where I emailed them and someone else from the start and someone else answered, or I found someone else in the 2 months span until they’re back, or did it myself, or it’s too late to help…. So it does help them avoid following up on things that don’t need following up on.
She’s not sure how long that author would’ve argued with her computer until she turned it off.
15 Funny Out Of Office Messages To Inspire Your Own Templates Out Of Office Message Out Of Office Email Messages 10 Best Out Of Office Message Examples Auto Reply Emails For Vacations And Holidays Futureofworking Com
Something about it gets my goat up! Like she’s working and emailing me about things she wants me to work on, but her OOO is telling me to buzz off coz she’s too busy to get to my emails. Also she still has it set up and we’ve been in lockdown for over a week. How long does she intend to have her OOO triaging everything and making excuses for delays? We all know there’s a lockdown, that’s why everyone is scrambling for their events to be rescheduled – it just comes across as very self-important at a time where everyone is under stress. No one else in the organisation has this so it seems very bizarre to have an OOO while still working!
A professional email signature with contact information should do the trick in any case. Will you be monitoring your mailbox? – sometimes, when you are out of office, you may be able to check your incoming emails from time to time. If you can and do – include this information in your out of office message.
I accidentally left my slightly-more-than-professionally-testy “I am out of the office due to a lapse in government funding” voicemail greeting up for a couple months after funding was restored, oops.
For many roles, of course, the sort of OoO described wouldn’t work. But there are a lot of roles where people would survive just fine letting their requests sit for an extra week before forwarding again. And especially at smaller companies where there they might be pressed for coverage when people are out, I think it’s great to normalise that a job is basically ‘off-line’ for a week or two so that the employee can rest and recharge.