Ha reminds me of an admin here once who would leave like 10 bullet points on who to contact for what. We got a kick out of the point that was “for catering emergencies…contact…”.
This person decided that setting their out-of-office message was a prime time to settle an ongoing office argument about which Die Hard film is the best, complete with an integrated poll to add a little festive cheer to the auto-reply.
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How's that for an out-of-office message? Probably not ideal. As a working professional, emails are your lifeline. And even when you're not around to respond, you need to let senders know you're not actually ignoring them.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re going to be out of the office for a few days, or a few months – if you’re going on vacation, it’s critical to remember to set up your out-of-office autoresponder.
There is any number of valid reasons why you might skip on your email inbox for a while. You can be on vacation, feel sick or take a few days off to recharge.
Josh Kopelman’s vacation email is a classic example of taking a blunt approach at OOO messages.
Depending on the type of holiday, you can create specific templates for various holidays such as Christmas Thanksgiving, New Year etc.:
Going on a vacation, feeling under the weather, celebrating the holidays, or just playing hooky from work? If so, you need to let your colleagues, clients, and leads know that you’re not available. There’s nothing worse than waiting for an urgent request, or even a quick and simple response, only to find out the person you’re trying to reach is out of work and completely unable to respond to you.
You know that I am in habit of giving you a quick reply but this time I am facing difficulty due to the reason that I have to go to attend an annual session which is mandatory for my efficient official working. Therefore, I cannot reply to you on time. I hereby submit my apology for that. After I come back from attending the session, I will respond to all of your emails within a few days, most probably I will join you on 6-01-20XX.
Note: While you could test your out-of-office message, you can also see it’s working because Gmail conveniently overlays a yellow bar at the top of your inbox reminding you that your autoresponder is on, along with options to “End now” or adjust your settings.
I’ll be back in the office on August 7th and if all of the stars are in alignment, I’ll respond to this email before Labor Day.
It was just this colleague – it (thankfully) wasn’t the culture of the office, and I never saw anyone else abuse the OOO like this.
Obviously, not every out-of-office is set for a vacation. You also need an out-of-office if you go on an extended business trip or to a conference. But instead of simply telling people you’re at a business event, why not use this opportunity to encourage networking of new business connections?
There’s a term that we like to use around here called “snowbirds,” which is used to describe those who once resided in the northern part of the U.S., only to flee to warmer parts of the country during the winter.
Get the time and date right for when the automatic emails start - you could choose the the moment that you actually leave the office, or some cheeky people choose an hour or two before they leave, saying that they are busy handing over or wrapping up to deal with customers or other colleagues. They are still able to check the emails they do get anyway, to reply properly to if they want to.
Oct 15, 2014 · While it seems that everyone sends holiday cards these days, the key to standing out in the stack is to select a high quality card and include a thoughtful, heart-felt sentiment. Here are a few ideas to get you started: All of us send you warm wishes for a happy, peaceful holiday season and a prosperous new year.
Many businesses are using automated messages for retaining their customers and setting good examples for other businesses to follow. Using the auto reply messages rightly helps the business from taking impromptu decisions.