Don’t stress about what to say in your out-of-office messages. Keep it simple, concise, and the people reaching out to you will know exactly what to do or when they’ll hear from you. And, most importantly, enjoy your time off! By Erin Ollila / May 16th, 2021 / Categories: Professional Development / Tags: holidays, out-of-office, time off, vacation, work, work from home, work life balance
This seems like information that would be better in an email signature than an OOO, really. That’s how my organisation does it.
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My employer uses Outlook and it has an option to display all OOO messages when you add the person into the To/CC/BCC fields of an email, prior to sending it. It’s pretty great and actually saves an email sometimes because I can see who I should contact and just go to them.
My office has a shared vacation calendar, which I think is a more helpful way to handle this.
A ‘Type A’ who can’t ever fully switch-off from work… at least they’re honest about it!
The only thing I add to that boilerplate is if I’m working but mostly unavailable.
An out of office message is simply an automatic response to all incoming emails. You can set it up prior to leaving on vacation or taking a sick leave.
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My favorite one that I’ve heard is from TV. “You’ve reached {name}. I can’t answer. Don’t waste my time.”
Education Details: Keep your “Out of Office” reply short and simple. Here’s an example “Out of Office” message you can use: Subject line — Out of office: Hello, Thanks for your email. I am out of the
Thank you for your note. I’m currently out of the office, returning on [date]. I’ll respond to your message then.
The above automated messages do not sound assuring as the time is not specified in terms of hours, days, or week. Here is a good example that businesses can follow to deliver effective customer service communication.
I mean, sometimes I put up an OOO because I’m on vacation and not checking email. Sometimes I put one up because I’m travelling for work and will only have sporadic access to my laptop, but might get to check once or twice a day. In my role, it’s important to make that distinction. Maybe it’s not so important for other people.
It isn’t hard to write an out of office message. And it’s less important than learning how to write a great follow up or understanding what makes a killer subject line. But that’s just the reason why a lot of people usually underestimate what an out of office message can achieve.
But you don’t need to write an instruction guide for people as though they’re incapable of solving their own problems without you.
I’m mostly back in my actual office now, but I went with “away from my computer between X and Z” a couple of times and just straight up “I am on annual leave between X and Z” a couple of times.
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