I have nothing against part-time staff. But, if they only work until 4 PM until 5 PM, then the OOTO replies aren’t as helpful. If we had staff that only worked on certain days, then knowing that it may be more than one business day before a reply would be useful.
You cannot be sure how quickly your colleagues will respond to messages when you are absent, so avoid promising any instant assistance. Moreover, ensure you take permission from your co-workers before giving their details in the message. They might be too busy to substitute.
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But it seems a bit too chock full of dismissive, thinky veiled put-downs really. I wouldn’t want to work for someone would lump the people who work for them as competent humans (oh-em-gee, thanks), is that the best they can do to describe people? Oh wait….they look out for her (is she a princess) and each other (should I start applauding now?). No one needs to call me or anyone else a rock star, best teapot decorator in the multiverse, or amazing humans all the time but the best she could crank out was competent + humans. I get the attempt to be witty but it’s really sad that she isn’t more generous.
I hate unnecessary out of office messages. You don’t need to tell me you will be out for two hours. If it was that important, I would not be using e-mail!
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Amanda works at HubSpot, and she came with a unique auto respondent that asked her contacts to guess where she is. To give background, she flew down to Boston to attend a Red Sox training game in the spring with her father. She chose to ask her contacts whether where they think she might be, and also this played some wonderful use of litotes here:
Does your company publish blogs or offer downloadable ebooks, reports, or case studies? If so, add a P.S. to the end of your vacation message linking your readers to some content they can learn from or engage with.
An out of office message is important because it let's you keep people informed and tells them how to proceed in your absence. The Out of Office message for Social Media is cool. I can really include this on my Chat Bot now. Thanks for sharing it Christin.
I do this too! Depending on how busy my inbox is that day, I’ll also set it to start around 4:30 pm my last day in the office before going on vacation. I have a lot of people that email me at 4:56 expecting to be #1 on my list the next morning so I try to catch them that way.
If you're unsure of what exactly to write in your message, a good idea is to search through your inbox for out of office messages you have previously received from other people. From these messages, you'll have a good idea of the kind of tone and messaging that professionals use for these automatic replies.
1. Out of Office and Limited Access to Email Example. [Greeting] Thank you for your email message. I am going to be out of the office and will be back at (Date of Your Return).
The weather has changed, so I have decided to book myself a little break in the sunshine.
Oh I also saw one from a person who used to be my manager (thank goodness that nightmare is over). She had: – An extra space in the email address to contact in her absence, which would create a bounce back if someone tried to use it as she typed it. – Had a date that was clearly a “fill in the blank” that she didn’t look at, because it was something like “3th” instead of “3rd.”
Humans are, by nature, social creatures—but that doesn't always mean that being social is enjoyable. Here are the 4 kinds of communicators and how to speak with them effectively.
Don’t leave messages that come in outside of business hours hanging. Instead, let them know when they can expect a response. You’ve reached Maggie at HealthCorps. Our business hours are 8-5 EST and I am currently OOO. I will get back to you within the next business day, thanks!
And although my colleague had mixed feelings about her own parents joining that population in Florida, she couldn’t be too upset when her dad suggested flying down from Boston for a Red Sox spring training game.
Yes! I remember reading here the phrase: the default mode of clever is asshole. Meaning when trying to be clever backfires, you end up just looking like an asshole. I’ve given up the need to get laughs at my clever sense of humor while at work. I really hope that out of office message is for internal emails only, because the risk of this landing badly is too high.