So you've said your farewells and it's time to pack up your desk before getting escorted out. While you're there, you might as well create an out of office message to any hapless person that missed out on the news of your leaving.
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When the holidays roll around, many companies decide to hold holiday parties to celebrate with employees. However, announcing such a party requires releasing pertinent information, such as when, where, and additional details, such as dress code and expected activities. Doing so helps employees understand the event and manage their expectations.
As an employer one of our policies is to Call in absent days not text them in. This hasn’t worked well as employees ( especially young employees) will still text in those types of messages. It would be wonderful to have a feature in the iPhone that allows for instant text response that can be set up for certain contacts( employees). Something similar to an out of office message in email…” I am not receiving text, please call … … …. and speak to me directly”
I’ve started going really, really simple on OOO messages – literally just “I’ll be out of the office until ___, please contact ___ for questions about ____”
Let them know that while you’re not technically OOO, you aren’t operating at typical capacity.
Over time, I began to suspect that those who might be telling the truth (of which I suspected there were very few), would mention their relationship to the person and possibly the cause, for example “My grandmother just passed away after surgery.” The ones who left it wide open (“someone close has recently died”) led me to imagine that it could be a random person in their city that they read about in the news, their goldfish, or perhaps a distant relative who had passed away in the previous few years.
Hi there, Thank you for your email. I will be out of the office from [MM/DD] to [MM/DD] and will have limited access to email / will not have access to email. If this is urgent, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL] or [PHONE]. I will do my best to respond promptly to your email when I return on [MM/DD]. Best.
If the person keeps you on the message thread in which they then contact someone else (ideally, the person you stated in your out of office message as the one who’s handling urgent issues in your absence), you are literally kept in the loop and can see for yourself that all was handled when you get back. Of course, this works even better if you check the most recent items in your inbox first when you get back.
I recently described myself as being “out of the virtual office.” Away from the virtual office” would probably have been even more precise. I think whatever you say, people will understand what you mean.
But you don’t need to write an instruction guide for people as though they’re incapable of solving their own problems without you.
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That doesn’t sound odd to me at all, depending on the company. I used to send a staff-wide note because they needed to know I would be out and they could plan accordingly if they needed anything. At my current company I wouldn’t do this, but that’s because it’s massive and I only directly work with a small team.
Christmas Voicemail Pre Recorded Message 1 Thank you for calling, We are now closed for the Christmas holidays. If you wish to leave a message you can do so after the tone, and we will reply as soon as we return. We’d like to wish you a Happy Christmas and a …
I’m not sure I agree. Just as it’s part of the job for someone to handle their emails, it’s also part of the job for the sender to make sure that their request is sent to someone who is available.
Sometimes teams need the extra nudge to disconnect...here are our tips for getting your team to unplug from email over the holidays.
That message was definitely too long, and while I see it was meant to be funny/snarky, I can see where it would be grating / easy to misinterpret.