Out-of-office messages are critical to keeping things moving smoothly during times when employees are absent. They also serve as reminders to others of what day you won’t be available.
18. "Hi, you've reached [your name]. I'm away from [date] to [date]. If you need help with [X] before then, please contact [name] at [phone number]. Everyone else, please leave your name and number and I'll return your call when I return. Thanks and have a great day."
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Hello, I’m out of the office until [DATE]. However, I will be taking periodic breaks from binge-watching everything I’ve missed to check my email [once per day/every evening/occasionally] while I’m away. If this matter isn’t time-sensitive, rest assured that I’ll respond when I’m back in the office. But, if this is an urgent request, please resend any messages that require my immediate attention with a subject line of “URGENT: [Original Subject]”. All the best.
Join us at the HAR Reception Tues., 6pm @ Ballroom B. If you need tickets, send me a text: 555.555.5555
I don’t. They just have to wait. The people in my office that could have a legitimate emergency that requires my input have my cell number, and they’d just call me.
I’ve only seen it used for certain roles – usually admin-type ones – where people are fielding a significant amount of requests, so the potential vacation backlog could become prohibative and discourage people from taking time off.
Check your insurance is up to date and covers the holiday periodMake sure you have sufficient funds in your business account to cover any regular payments for salaries and other billsClarify with staff their exact leave dates and note themSend out your invoices to clientsPay your supplier invoicesSettle your finances and pays
Which to my mind lets people know when I’m back and that I will get back to them after that date, as well as who to contact for more urgent stuff. But every time, Wakeen gets teapot questions because people apparently can’t be bothered to finish reading and they both get questions on stuff that is not due for weeks after I return.
Wherever you go on holiday, you’ll probably have access to the internet at some point. You might want to acknowledge this in your O.O.O. – but it’s also worth forcing the sender to question if it’s really worth interrupting your holiday by setting up a very blunt alternative inbox... I know I’m supposed to say that I’ll have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond until I return, but that’s not true. My iPhone will be with me and I can respond if I need to. And I recognise that I’ll probably need to interrupt my vacation from time to time to deal with something urgent. That said, I promised my wife that I am going to try to disconnect, get away and enjoy our vacation as much as possible. So, I’m going to experiment with something new. I’m going to leave the decision in your hands: • 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. • If you think someone else at First Round Capital might be able to help you, feel free to email my assistant, Fiona, and she’ll try to point you in the right direction.
Thank you for your email, I’m currently out of the office and celebrating the holidays until [insert date]. For immediate assistance, please contact [insert name] at [insert email] and one of Santa’s helpers will assist you!
This holiday out-of-office email is definitely on theme, if not a little passive aggressive. If you’re getting emails during the holidays, why not treat everything you receive that season like the present it is, and send a thank you note?
At my old job, you used to nominate a contact for when you were out of the office and there wasn’t an obvious person to contact. One department was so small that they all just put the all team email so they never had to change it. Trouble is, it turns out Outlook team emails by default only accept internal messages :X
In your case it’s actually related to your work! WHOMST would not like a cute pet picture, what a bonus?!
Literally just “Please note that (date) is a public holiday in (country). I will not be checking my inbox until (next working day).”
As a “don’t try this at home” anecdote, last week we had an all staff retreat, and we were asked to put up away messages. I put a perfectly professional one up for outside email, but in a fit of whimsy, the internal mail triggered an away message that said “Why are you emailing? We are supposed to be paying attention to the retreat!” I figured, we were all at the retreat, so nobody would ever know. Of course, someone did email me 30 minutes before everything started, and triggered the message. Fortunately, he figured out it was an away message and thought it was funny.
The majority of your out-of-office emails will go to recipients with whom you communicate regularly. If you are sure that there’s a certain level of familiarity with all of the people that get your auto-reply messages, consider writing something about yourself, a funny note, or a joke. That allows them to develop a more personal relationship with you.
Thank you for your email! I am on vacation. Vacations are not for checking email, so I won’t be doing that. Fortunately, we rarely encounter life and death situations in the world of [INDUSTRY TYPE], and aren’t we all glad for that? If you think I’m checking email because you just received an email from me, that is only because I figured out the pixies that send emails on a schedule. Really, I’m not checking email.