Most of what I’m describing (as well as boyd) boils down to examples of clear, honest, communication. While it sounds simple, such openness is extremely rare in the workplace. It is rare because, especially with time off, this type of communication requires the sender to be vulnerable, to cede control, and/or to be assertive and frank about one’s needs.
As 2020 winds down, lots of people (us included) will be out of the office celebrating the holidays with family and friends. Here are some really funny, clever and snarky out-of-office messages sent this year, courtesy of HubSpot Blogs (full article here).
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1.) Bienvenido/a a John Doe. Nuestras líneas de teléfono no están disponibles durante períodos de vacaciones. Puede encontrar nuestro horario de oficina en nuestra página web www.joendoe.de. Gracias por su confianza. Le deseamos a usted y a su familia unas felices fiestas y un próspero año nuevo.
When we set an out-of-office, we don’t immediately think of lead generation. However, it is a good opportunity to this end. For instance, you could encourage attendance for a webinar or future event, suggest sign-ups for online courses, give links to book downloads, or point recipients in the direction of any other product or service you are pushing. As well as informing the recipient of your unavailability, you are encouraging them to act.
5.) Caros clientes, nosso escritório estará fechado de 24 de dezembro a 2 de janeiro. Você pode nos contatar, como de costume, na segunda-feira 05 de janeiro. Desejamos a você e sua família um Feliz Natal e um feliz ano novo.
You got this email immediately (classic autoresponder behavior), which means I’m out of office on vacation.
Compelling visuals catch the eye, bring automatic messages to life, and they add a spark of creativity and imagination to your message.
“It wasn’t a vacation, but I didn’t want to deal with normal business stuff,” he says. “Humor is sticky. People laughed … and they left me alone.”
The reason I did it was that the first time I took maternity leave, I came back to thousands of irrelevant emails. It was a chore to sort through them, and finding the ones that were still relevant was like finding a needle in a haystack. And it wasn’t just a waste of *my* time – I often had to reach out to email senders only to hear that no further action was needed, so I was wasting their time too.
I have always been flabbergasted by people who include vacation details (especially if they’ll be out of the country) in their OOO messages. I’m not a burglar, nor do I know any. (I hope!) But the people with the message don’t know that!
That said, be careful with messages that are this curt. Make sure you're familiar enough with your audience — and your boss, for that matter — to know that this sort of out-of-office message will be met with a snicker, and not with annoyance.
First, and most importantly, let the people trying to get in touch with you know when you’ll be gone and when you’ll be returning. There’s one more date to add — when they can expect for you to return their message.
If you do not resend your email to the appropriate person as outlined above, it will not be read. I am not checking email during this time, and my emails are not being forwarded to someone else to check, either. Please also understand that it will take me some time to respond to you once I am back.
Agree that part time staff was odd to include here. I have no idea if you are part time. I don’t keep track of other people’s schedules. I would find it helpful to know you aren’t available the rest of the day in case I need something sooner.
The one from “Central Intelligence” with the Rock that I love is is (paraphrasing) :
Please note: Shipment cutoff times on December 22nd will be at 2pm MST. Regular shipment schedules will continue on Tuesday, December 27th.
Image Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hilarious-out-of-office-email-auto-replies