Whether you're taking a personal or business trip, keep in mind that information contained in your OOO message could be used against you maliciously. Be sure to follow out-of-office message best practices to keep your company data secure. Create different out-of-office replies based on whether the message is going to someone inside or outside your company Avoid personal details Don't share your travel destination Don't provide direct insight into the chain of command Avoid listing your exact length of vacation
Thank you for your email. I’ll be offline starting Friday, November 20 through the Thanksgiving holiday with limited access to email, and will respond to your email upon my return on Monday, November 30. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Maria Gonzalez, my fellow digital marketing manager here at MixCo Media, at [email protected]. Thanks for your patience!
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The big issue I have with the example in the post is that not only is it unnecessarily long-winded, but you have to listen through all the chattiness to get to the “here’s who to contact in a real emergency” part. The tone does rub me wrong, but I’m willing to roll with that as a personality/company culture thing.
Out-of-Office Messages for Holidays. 10. The Warning Signal. Not only can colleges get in on the fun of an OOO message, but they're talking to way more So, take a lesson from @courtwhip, editor at PEDESTRIAN.TV, who wrote this hilarious out-of-office email, fully stocked with mentions of the best...
I’ll be enjoying this year’s holiday season from [DATE] until [DATE]. For general inquiries about [DEPARTMENT/ROLE], please email [CONTACT NAME]. If this isn’t time sensitive, feel free to resend this email in [MONTH] once I’m regularly checking emails again. All the best.
How long you’re out of the office forWho to contact while you’re awayYour return date
Does this only work with contacts saved in my phone? I’m trying to get an auto response to prospective clients whom I don’t have saved in my phone.
If your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please resend it to [email protected] and I’ll try to respond to it promptly.
Uh… until when? Who should I contact in the meantime? Also, at the time of my emailing this person it was March, so I had to assume that OOO was from last year?! I finally learned that the person had left to another job. So many questions.
Yes, with all the holiday planning of feasts and gifts and decorations, there is also the important task of drafting your holiday auto-responder text. You need to let your colleagues and clients know that you’ll be away from your desk celebrating the spirit of the season (and not reading their emails!).
It was very inefficient but I was making $3 above minimum wage and it was air conditioned. So no argument from me. They took me back for the winter break and would have had me every other summer except I did internships, so I guess I didn’t do too badly.
I used to work with someone who had a message telling people she only checked her email twice a day. You pretty much needed to call her if you needed anything outside of those times. (She worked in a remote office.) I think she had read one of those books on efficiency that recommended scheduled email time. But there were problems with this: 4. My department often had to email attachments or text to illustrate our questions/concerns. And we were on deadlines. Reading a page of text over the phone was not an efficient use of anyone’s time 5. She did outreach & was often out of the office on site visits, trainings, or travel to these places, but never ever set her OOO for these, because she was “working.” However, she was effectively not available to read emails from other staff until after hours on those days.
Not to mention, there are all sorts of oddball situations where you might wish you gave another option. No chance that a call from a big client, the CEO, or a supplier might get routed there? Not to mention enforcement agencies that are often “we sent the required notice to the contact info I was given” before they issue a citation or pull a license or tow the company van.
Then wish them happy holidays, for example: I wish you and your family the very best this holiday season. I hope you have a wonderful time this Christmas. I wish you a Happy Christmas and a bright New Year. Peace and joy to you and your family this holiday season. I hope you have a nice and warm holiday season! I'm truly grateful to have a friend like you! Thinking of you with lots of love! I hope you enjoy a wonderful Christmas! How do I send a holiday email to a client?
Sample voicemail for individual’s work phone: “You have reached the voicemail for (name) at The University of Toledo. The University is closed for winter break. Please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone, and I will return your call after New Year's Day. Thank you and happy holidays.”
Oh, that’s maddening. I just checked Outlook, and it doesn’t look like you can set up a rule not to send OOO replies to a particular person, but you can reply with a template. I wonder if sending just your boss a message that says “Hi boss, this is an automated reply that I set up a rule to send. I’m really out of the office and I really didn’t see this message. See you when I get back on Monday!” or whatever. Probably won’t help, but might be fun.
There’s nothing worse than dreading a return from being away from the desk. After all, you’re likely to have an overflowing email inbox left untended while you were on vacation. Sending out this one email before you go anywhere for an extended period of time will help lessen that feeling.