Thank you for your email. I’m out of the office and into the cookies and eggnog right now. I’m celebrating the holidays with my loved ones and will not be checking my email until [return date].
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You can clarify that there’s a possibility that you’ll see the email before the return date, but you can’t guarantee it.
I mean, sometimes I put up an OOO because I’m on vacation and not checking email. Sometimes I put one up because I’m travelling for work and will only have sporadic access to my laptop, but might get to check once or twice a day. In my role, it’s important to make that distinction. Maybe it’s not so important for other people.
I have always said that I’m taking annual leave so that still applies for me – but that’s pretty standard for my company.
I typically say “thanks for your message, I’m out until blah date, with periodic access to email” or no access depending. I list contacts who are willing to pitch in if necessary, and list the day AFTER my return that I’ll be able to address messages.
Hi, Thank you for your email! I am on vacation until [MM/DD]. Vacations are not for checking email, so I won’t be doing that. During my absence, please contact [name] at [email] or [phone] because she’s checking email. Not me. Really, I’m not checking email.
My husband’s voice mails says “…if you need immediate assistance call Mary at ####…”, only Mary retired something like eight years ago. I mention this to him every once in a while. It hasn’t changed.
Wherever you go on holiday, you’ll probably have access to the internet at some point. You might want to acknowledge this in your O.O.O. – but it’s also worth forcing the sender to question if it’s really worth interrupting your holiday by setting up a very blunt alternative inbox... I know I’m supposed to say that I’ll have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond until I return, but that’s not true. My iPhone will be with me and I can respond if I need to. And I recognise that I’ll probably need to interrupt my vacation from time to time to deal with something urgent. That said, I promised my wife that I am going to try to disconnect, get away and enjoy our vacation as much as possible. So, I’m going to experiment with something new. I’m going to leave the decision in your hands: • If your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please resend it to [email protected] and I’ll try to respond to it promptly. • If you think someone else at First Round Capital might be able to help you, feel free to email my assistant, Fiona, and she’ll try to point you in the right direction.
The more information you include in your outgoing message about the colleagues who can assist in your absence, the less likely you are to interfere with ongoing projects. This will help ensure you enjoy that well-earned vacation.
Seriously, literally, anything but a voicemail. I’d take “sharpie on a dirty napkin delivered by carrier pigeon to my island vacation” over voicemails. I can’t flag voicemails for later. And also, we have this cool new feature where you can see missed calls. I do not need a voicemail just saying “Hey its Bob, call me back.”
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.
A ‘Type A’ who can’t ever fully switch-off from work… at least they’re honest about it!
That said, be careful with messages that are this curt. Make sure you're familiar enough with your audience — and your boss, for that matter — to know that this sort of out-of-office message will be met with a snicker, and not with annoyance.
I wonder if anyone ever calculated how much time was wasted producing those messages.
This is an automatic reply. Thank you very much for your email. I am currently on holiday until [date], I will not be able to respond to your emails promptly until I am back to the office. In the event that you need an urgent response, please call the office directly on: 1) Office Lines (Working Hours, Monday-Sunday + 3GMT): [Tel Numbers]