4. 4 The Tech Break. Hello, ‘Tis the season when a lot of people get to take a break from work. I’m on one such break, and that means I get to avoid email. And Slack.
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You don’t need to say how long you’ll be away, adds Tim Reeves, principal of the ad agency Allen & Gerritsen. “That just makes you feel guilty, particularly if you’re taking a glorious two-week vacation,” he says. “Just say when you’ll be back. It feels way better.”
I’ll be out of the office on vacation for the next week. I will probably see your message because I don’t know how to relax and will likely respond if I feel that I need to help in any way. Otherwise, I’ll get back to you when I return. Thanks! If you don’t feel like adding to my workload, please contact [name] at [email] or [phone] in the meantime.
As the country’s situation gets better, we’ll reopen it and inform you through emails. In case of any queries, you may email at [Email] and your questions will be answered. I hope to see all of you once again in the office after the situation calms down.
So, for whatever reason you’re out of the office, your email inbox should be informative with any information about office closures or unexpected absences: Include an expected return date and time. Offer alternative point of contact and their details. Add the general office contact number and email address if you don’t have a specific point of contact. Be friendly and warm in your tone, even if you choose to keep it simple.
Some people can try to contact you again and again if they think you might be available at some time. If your colleagues know that they are on a personal vacation, they are less likely to attempt to contact you. The details of the person who can assist the caller when you are not available.
But you don’t need to write an instruction guide for people as though they’re incapable of solving their own problems without you.
With that in mind, we’ve put together five simple examples of what your out-of-office message could look like, from the wild and wacky to the simple and fact-y. And if you’re not sure about the logistics of actually setting your auto-responder, here’s a quick guide on how to do that.
Let them know that while you’re not technically OOO, you aren’t operating at typical capacity.
“Hello, I am out of the office from [date] to [date] for a family vacation. I have limited access to phone and will try to reply to you upon my return. If you need any urgent information, please contact [person] at [phone number]. Happy holidays!”
My mom works part time at a library in archives, where her personal work email is also the general archives email (ie LibraryNameArchives @ email . com). She has an out of office response that replies with her work hours (since she’s the only employee in the archives) so people know when she’s in the library and can respond or when they can come in and visit her. The only frustrating thing is that her email either isn’t capable of, or she doesn’t know how to, turn off the OOO email when she’s actually in the office, or doesn’t trust that she’ll remember to turn it back on. She’ll send me an email about something, I’ll respond, I’ll get an OOO response, she’ll respond, I’ll reply, I get an OOO reply, etc etc.
I will be out of the office celebrating Canada Day (July 1), World UFO Day (July 2nd), Tom Cruise’s Birthday (July 3rd) and July 4th (July 4th.) It’s also National Picnic Month so let’s just reconnect in August, shall we?
If you are re-using the existing message from the past, make sure you update the dates so that your clients know when you will be available again. For a general out-of-office message, it is vital to include the office timings.
Thanks so much for your email. I’ve decided to take advantage of the holiday weekend and truly take [Monday/Friday] off. In an effort to come back fully recharged, I won’t be checking my email. Don’t worry though, if it’s urgent, you can reach out to [name] at [email address].
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One thing that really bothers me in out of office messages is “contact my supervisor” without listing the supervisor’s name. I work in a company with 4 large service departments, and each department is broken into multiple smaller teams. I don’t have a great grasp on who is on or who leads which smaller team, and we don’t have an org chart with that much detail readily available. If you’re saying to contact someone, I think you should always include the person’s name and contact information, not just “my supervisor”, “one of my team members”, etc. !