If you’re taking a vacation and staying home, your clients or coworkers may still expect you to pop into the office and answer their email. Use this autoresponder to let them know you’re really not available — even if you’re bumming around on the couch.
We’ve certainly come a long way since the honeymoon days of You’ve Got Mail, the 1998 Meg Ryan romcom in which each new electronic missive set Tom Hanks’ heart fluttering (and vice versa). These days, in tech circles, you’ll hear tales of folk who’ve set their email servers up to automatically delete unread emails after a week – before going on holiday for a full fortnight. Others have reduced the OOO to a single word in the subject line: “Nope.”
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We are encouraged to put up messages that say we have “limited access to email” and alternative contact for things like travel between offices and conferences. We’re technically working those days, but it may be hard to reach us.
You kicked off this week hard, meeting deadlines, delivering year-end results, tying up loose ends, and getting a jump-start on 2018 initiatives. With a sigh of relief you’re beaming with excitement for holiday cookie decorating, quirky family Christmas traditions, and sweet S-L-O-W mornings sipping coffee and relaxing (read: Netflix binge)… It’s time to wrap up the computer, well, save the paper for your presents, and set your out of the office message. We’re here to help.
When I worked at Nightmare Small Business(tm), a coworker went on maternity leave with (privately shared among the staff, but not with the owner) the intent to give her notice at the end rather than return. She left a very professional, concise and informative out of office message. The owner proceeded to log in to her email and change the message to include saccharine references to both the pregnancy/baby and how much she “missed” being away from clients and how excited she was to return soon.
Under “General,” scroll down to the “Vacation responder” section. Fill in your message and subject line and select the dates you’d like it to appear, then select “Vacation responder on” and then “Save Changes” to finish.
While you’re writing and activating your out of office message, avoid including the following:
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There’s just one problem with this approach: you’ve now obligated yourself to regularly check your email the whole time you’re out.
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.
Hello and thanks for your email. I’m out of the office right now, but will get back to you as soon as I can. Expect a reply Monday latest. (If you need something right now, please email [EMAIL]. In the meantime, check out this new [ARTICLE LINK] that our team just released last week. It’s a labor of love – one that’s short to read, easy to implement, and–most importantly–free of charge. Talk to you soon.
Braden also recommends using HubSpot's out-of-office email generator to create your OOO message.
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And that's it. Easy peasy, right? We know there are tons of genius out of office messages we missed, so if you've got a favorite don't forget to share it with us in the comments below!
Education Details: 7 Best Out of Office Message Examples You Can Use. Holiday season is upon us, which means winter vacation plans are in full swing – and so are the number of out of office (OOO) messages that are probably flying back into your inbox. There’s probably a good chance that you need to write one in the near future.
If you’re feeling stuck, try our free OOO email generator to draft a message that perfectly captures who you are and where you're going. Out-of-Office Messages for Vacation 1. “I’ll email you back once I’ve defrosted.”
I love this and want to start using it. I am assuming it’s pronounced “hood-a-lay” and that said hodilay has already begun when the OOO message was written!