Note: If you don't see the Automatic Replies button, follow the steps to use rules to send an out of office message.
According to The Washington Post’s self-reported survey of more than 1,000 white-collar workers, “we spend an average of 4.1 hours checking our work email each day.” That’s over 1,000 hours each year. The holidays are the perfect time to temporarily break up with your email inbox for a digital detox. Before you stress about crafting the perfect out of the office message, check out our sample templates. From professionally festive to holiday humor, we know you’ll be ready to copy, paste, and fully embrace the holiday season.
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Thanks for calling [Company Name]. Our offices are currently closed. Our business hours are from Monday to Friday 9 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time, and Saturday 9 AM to 12 PM Eastern. If you would like to leave a message in our general voice mailbox, press 1. A representative will contact you the following business day. To reach our company directory, press 2. For business hours and directions to our office, press 3. You may also email us at [company email]. For more information about our products and services, please visit us at [website]. To repeat this message, press the * key. 7. Direct Customers to Your Account Login Page
Yes! I HATE the voicemails that are like “can you give me a call back?” Like… give me some context so you can end up on my to-do list in the right place. People who leave these voicemails automatically go on the bottom.
I have a colleague who usually does different ones for internal and external: internal will be “I’m currently in the pouring rain in a tent in the Cotswolds. I get back (hopefully without trenchfoot!) on Monday Date. Whilst I’m getting soggy please contact Email Address.” and external is just “I’m on annual leave between X and Y and will not be accessing my email. Please contact Email Address if you need assistance during this time.” We all really like their internal ones.
2. Enter a name for your message in the Greeting Name box. 3. Record your custom message over the phone or import a message you already have. Just follow the onscreen instructions for either option. 4. Once you’ve added your message, go to Company Settings > Company Rules. In the Company Business Hours row, click Edit. 5.
But that sounds boring, right? Luckily, there are ways to spice up your OOO message by adding humor in just the right places.
Exactly! This may be the type of person who hears a phrase that sounds polite when referring to another, but mangles it and uses it to refer to themself so it becomes the opposite of polite.
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.
Don’t know if those happen due to bad software, or a bad configuration decision, or just careless users, but those exhaust me.
Agreed. I think some people don’t analyze the individual words when they hear the phrase. It’s fine to say “please let me know at YOUR earliest convenience” but it’s weird to say “I’ll get back to you at MY earliest convenience.”
One of my co-workers, who was involved in a lot of committees and consequently got even more than the usual share of email around my place, put up an OOO message that said she was going to be “on pot for the week of the 15th.”
If you are going on a vacation, try to surprise your customers with an Out of office message that appears on your behalf and tension free and enjoy the vacation.
If you have critical projects that can’t wait until you return, offer a communication option like text messages, suggests Reeves. “I have found, to my delight, that people really are judicious about texting you while on vacation,” he says, with one caveat. “Don’t put your mobile number in the away message. That way, only people who have your mobile number can text you. And those are the ones you care most about.”
However, I will be taking periodic breaks from binge-watching everything I’ve missed to check my email [once per day/every evening/occasionally] while I’m away.
I pretty much never pay attention to out of office replies, just note if there is one. If I really need something urgently I’ll look to see if there’s another person’s contact info, but it’s rarely that urgent. I might also look for a return date, if that matters to me. It would annoy me if I had to wade through a wall of text to find either of those things.
I’m with you. It comes across as a bit scold-y, like chastising someone for emailing while you’re out and treating them as if their issues aren’t important.