When you’re trying to contact someone on a matter of importance (or even urgency) on one side of the equation and you find out via an autoresponder that they are away for vacation, it can be incredibly frustrating unless they’ve done the front-end work beforehand. (I’m speaking from personal – and recent – experience here. And worse, there was no auto-responder set up. I had to use the – gasp! – telephone to find out what was going on.)
But what should you do to keep the message informative, engaged and maybe a little festive?
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“Happy Holidays” is typically used when you aren't really sure what holiday someone celebrates. In that instance you are replacing Christmas or Hanakkuh with the word Holiday making it a proper noun, which means it should be capitalized.
@cwarzel I’ve started putting mine up on weekends, and on weekdays after 7pm for internal senders. I’m offline for the night & won’t be checking email, dorks.
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I’ll be at a work off-site and will have limited availability by phone and email until ___, please contact ___ for immediate needs about ____ otherwise I will respond as soon as possible”
If you don’t clearly state the dates on which you will be disconnected from work, your office co-workers and clients will most likely send you multiple emails, clogging your inbox. That will make it quite difficult for you to catch up when you get back. Also, if you don’t include the name and contact information in your outgoing message for the co-workers who can help in your absence, your well-deserved and pleasant vacation time could get in the way of specific projects in the company.
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Thank them for their email. Even though you're not actually responding to the email, you still need to mind your Ps and Qs. After your greeting, add "Thanks for your email."
I just say “following my return to the office” because saying “as soon as possible” isn’t actually when I’m going to respond — I may have other priorities when I get back that take precedence over responding to a week old email that wasn’t important enough for them to contact my backup. That said, it doesn’t bother me when other people do it!
My phone just sits there gathering dust, so the only OOO message I need is the one I put in my email. Something like “I’ll read my email again on X. If you need assistance before then, please contact my colleague NN.”
If you need immediate assistance before then, you may reach me on my mobile – (Mobile Number).
I’m here to talk to you about someone you know. Catalina Wong is out of office until September 27. She wanted me to let you know that she’ll get back to you after her return.
10. Don’t forget about X. While doing holiday gift shopping, we often focus on our loved ones and friends. And sometimes we forget about those who are just as close to us and love us unconditionally – our pets.
The only thing I add to that boilerplate is if I’m working but mostly unavailable.
At the discretion of the president and with the subsequent approval of the vice presidents and deans of each division or college, an early dismissal may be authorized on the working day prior to a university holiday allowing staff members to leave campus at 2 p.m. — provided it is acceptable to their supervisor, all time-critical work is completed and no urgent business is anticipated.