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]
By now, your neighbourhood supermarket is probably already blasting the classic Christmas tunes, your favourite colleagues are on vacation many miles away, and you’re counting down the days till you get to clear your annual leave 😏
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See, in my head, “as soon as possible” reads simply as a more formal way of saying “I will respond at my earliest convenience.” Like, either way, this person is getting back to you as soon as they can, whatever that actually means.
I’ve started going really, really simple on OOO messages – literally just “I’ll be out of the office until ___, please contact ___ for questions about ____”
Unfortunately, literally every single thing in the world is an emergency in my office :(
I will return with a glowing tan on [insert date] and respond promptly to all emails. If your request is time sensitive, please email [insert name] at [insert email].
“I will be out of the office between date and date. If your email requires urgent attention please contact Insert Name Here.” Imo that’s enough
For immediate assistance, please contact me on my cell phone at (your cell phone number).
I had this at my old job, but only for internal calls. It was a completely different person on an old job site. IT couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Only one person complained at least, no matter how many times I told her I couldn’t fix it.
Yup. Well, I do specify I will have “sporadic/intermittent” access to email or “no” access to email, because there is a difference. But short and sweet is the way to go.
Ann Handley is one of the renowned digital marketers who is also known for her sense of humor. In the below auto-response, she has sprinkled some clever creativity, personalization, and warmth instead of the two-line cold replies that we see almost everywhere. This can surely be an inspiration for anyone willing to catch the reader’s attention and make them smile even while away.
Customize any phone experience. Easily manage your voicemail greetings, phone tree menus (press 1 to schedule an appointment) and hold music to create any phone experience. No more re-recording messages or running into the office last minute for a holiday office closure …
I am currently out of the office and will not have access to email. Please contact Elena Prince at [email protected] in my absence.
But perhaps we have it all wrong, and are simply enslaving ourselves further to technology by toiling over OOOs that are personality-packed, marketing-friendly perfection. Maybe we need to be altogether more standoffish if we want to make our OOOs really work for us? NYU Professor Meredith Broussard, who’s the author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World, takes the inspiration for her OOO from US writer, poet and children’s author E.B. White, who once turned down an invitation from President Eisenhower with the words “I must decline, for secret reasons”. Accordingly, Broussard’s OOO reads simply: “I am out of the office, for secret reasons.”
Inspiration 1 – Christmas colors green and red. Green and red are the colors that define this Christmas email signature template. A light and general marketing banner is the way to go if you have no time to create your own. If you would like to change the colors to match your brand identity, you can do it in the free signature generator.
Supervisors with employees who work during winter break should track hours using the Winter Break Hours Tracking spreadsheet. Please follow the instructions provided and contact your Human Resources consultant with any questions.
The ability to schedule your OOO replies was literally the best feature ever to come to Outlook, and it took way too long.