I had a boss that required OOO messages anytime you left the office. A single sick day, leaving four hours early, coming in two hours late, etc. This at an org that didn’t require quick email responses, and at which people typically only put up OOOs for multiple days out.
If you're anything like I am, you probably fall into team two. That doesn't leave a lot of time to get creative. But if you plan ahead, you might be able to craft some hilarity.
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Because I used to get phone calls that defaulted to, “I need the director”, I had my out of office mail set to:
Notice: Office hour of [company Name] during [holiday name] holidays the offices will remain open from : am to : pm. [company name] will be closed on [date] and resume operations on [date].
This is how my voicemails to my doctor’s office, my son’s doctor’s office, his daycare, etc. all go. Actually, the few times I leave voicemails beyond that, this is how they go.
Ha reminds me of an admin here once who would leave like 10 bullet points on who to contact for what. We got a kick out of the point that was “for catering emergencies…contact…”.
I work for a Japanese company which has a regular rotation of engineers who come over for 2-4 years so we get some enjoyable translations for all manner of communication.
Yes – it’s become a stock phrase that people think sounds polite but they’re not grasping the nuance of it.
A few years ago we had a team meeting, with the typical agenda provided to all by our manager. One of the items was OOO and the manager’s name and dates of her upcoming vacation–of course, to give the team advance notice that she would be out. One of my colleagues did not know the acronym and was at first confused. His read: “Ooooh, Mary is on vacation for these dates and is so excited.” Which I am sure was the case, but . . . no, not exactly. Ha ha.
Hi Steve, thanks for your article. My issue is same as Pam Lamkin, above. In order to use your phone you must turn off “Driving” mode, and then any messages that come in will not get the auto reply as long as you are on your phone, and until you reinstate the driving mode. Any thoughts?
Obviously, I need to update it. And if you haven't changed your voicemail greeting in over a year, you're likely in the same boat.
Short for automatic reply, auto messages are texts sent without the need for manual intervention. They’re also almost always in response to a triggering action. General auto reply: A pre-written response like an out-of-office message that can be turned on and off.Specific auto reply: This kind of message is only sent when a particular action is taken. For example, when a text-to-join keyword is texted to your number. These are also sometimes referred to as triggers.
Not being in the office doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t develop your brand’s reputation. To do this, offer a link to some reviews about your product. In doing this, you drive traffic to your website and leave a good impression of your company… providing the reviews are positive. Here’s an example of this method:
Happy holidays! I am currently out of the office, with no email access. I’ll be returning on (insert date) and will get back to you as soon as I can. Happy holidays!
This is one reason I rarely give a contact person. My company is terrible at communication, and not only could you easily be sent on a OOO chain, you could also be emailing someone who is out who didn’t even use OOO.
We had someone today that sent an inquiry about something (this person is not a client, more of an outside business partner). Dude sent, within about an hour and a half time frame, 7 emails. Calling out one person on the DL multiple times within a half hour, then proceeding to call out the rest of the DLs (ALL in the original copy list) to try to get an answer to his question.
It’s like telling your bank before you leave the country; overlooking it can cause communication issues.