Other than that, I keep it simple like most folks here, but back in my younger days I had one that started something like “I am out of the office on vacation until (date). I will not be checking emails, voicemails, (work queue system), or generally thinking about this place at all…”
An out-of-office message is an automatic response to emails you receive that lets the sender know you’re not currently working.
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The problem was that this had to be done on deadline and people wanted me to do other things for them that weren’t time sensitive. So I put up an internal-only out of office that basically said “hey sorry I’m working on project X and we have a tight deadline. If this isn’t urgent I’ll get back to you next week. If it is urgent, let me know!”
My boss requires us to put a nightly OOO message up, and I HATE it. I pushed back on it for months at first, because people know and understand that the reason no one is responding at 8pm is because the business is closed (or at least, they should understand that…). It wasn’t worth the fight, my boss thinks it’s so important, so I caved and just turn on the message every night. I think it makes us look immature and like we don’t understand business norms, but it’s not the hill I’m willing to die on.
If you still need to reach me, you can email [email protected]. Or you can email my assistant at [email protected]. They can point you in the right direction.
That said, I do realize that I can’t just not use my phone at work. I’m surprised she has not been called on it by her coworkers yet!
But this is where it becomes a power thing. The OOO person says that everyone else wants stuff from them that the sender can’t get elsewhere and you need to grovel to get it from them.
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Yes – it’s become a stock phrase that people think sounds polite but they’re not grasping the nuance of it.
I have no idea how to update my voicemail message and I don’t actually know what it says. I occasionally get voicemails that are automatically forwarded to my email as sound files but I don’t think I have ever had a business related voicemail land there (it is rare that I get calls from outside the company and most people in the company if they can’t reach me on the phone will IM me directly–we use Teams for both phone and messaging).
And describing their boss as elusive….taken in context with the rest of the message…seems a bit of an attempt to say, “I run this ship solo so good luck with getting them to “help”, lol”
I will be out of the office this week. If you need assistance while I’m away, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL].
If you’re a customer who has finished onboarding, and you have questions or concerns about your current database, please submit a support request through your database, or email [email protected] for assistance. You can also reach support at 888-324-8756.
She may want to talk to her IT folks to see if they can help her switch this around.
If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact (Contact Person with email and phone). Upon my return, I will reply to your emails in a timely manner.
I’m part time. I don’t use an out of office message, but I do have my hours in my signature, and sometimes include that information in the body of email. Many of the people I correspond with frequently need things turned around quickly – postings for public meetings need to go out so many days ahead of said meeting, and similar. They need to know when I’m available to get the work done!
I have tried this on 3 Iphones, 2 are 8s, and it only works while driving. So DND is on, turned on manually. Scheduled is set to off. Silence “always”, allow calls from, no one. Activate is set to manually, auto reply to all contacts. It will not work unless the person is driving. What am I doing incorrectly?