In my world, “please contact $Manager” is recognition of a staffing level problem. $Manager will have to decide what project to defer if a crisis comes up while someone is OOO.
Out of town? Your callers should know. Let them know with the following vacation voicemail greetings.
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But despite these (fantastic) suggestions, the number one rule for choosing your out of office is that it reflects who you are as a person. Don’t change for anyone, especially not your auto-responder.
Your business is important to us and I will respond to you immediately when I return to work.
Hah! Maternity/parental leave is often 1 year here, so there is zero expectation you will read or “catch up” afterwards. We keep our email addresses during where I work (Canadian government), so it’s standard to put an OOO that just says “on parental leave. Please contact X instead” with no reference to actually reviewing any of those emails, and often not even a projected date of return since people often flex their return date or take extra time, or just return to a different position entirely (out of choice).
There are some places where the culture absolutely embraces this type of…expression so it may be that it works just fine.
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Josh Kopelman’s vacation email is a classic example of taking a blunt approach at OOO messages.
Thanks for calling [Company Name]. Our offices are currently closed. Our business hours are from Monday to Friday 9 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time, and Saturday 9 AM to 12 PM Eastern. If you would like to leave a message in our general voice mailbox, press 1. A representative will contact you the following business day. To reach our company directory, press 2. For business hours and directions to our office, press 3. You may also email us at [company email]. For more information about our products and services, please visit us at [website]. To repeat this message, press the * key. 7. Direct Customers to Your Account Login Page
Additional resources: You might include a link to one of your webpages or a download if it provides information that can be useful to people while you are away.
This workaround will take care of auto-reply messages for phone calls and messages to the iPhone. There are a lot of users using iCloud emails on iPhone and Mac. You can set a vacation auto-reply on the iCloud email account. Let’s see how to set automatic vacation messages on iCloud email.
Try something like, "For immediate assistance, please contact Boss Name at [email protected]."
There is never a time that isn’t right to share the love. Do well to share these messages with friends and loved ones.
You don’t have to disclose the specific reason for your absence in your out-of-office message. You can simply say “I’m on leave” or “I’m currently out of the office.” This goes for any reason you’re OOO.
I think you talk to person X and ask them to cc you when they are dealing with things sent to them because of your OOO.
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.
If you know that you’re going to be out of office for a long time, it’s worth thinking about redirecting your clients to your colleague. Mention their name, explain what position they occupy and how they can help your client. Include a way to contact them in the form of an email address or a phone number. Just try to warn a colleague that you want to redirect your clients to them before going on a vacation.