6. Out of Office Template #6 For the Person Who Likes to Live on the Edge (of HR Protocol) Hello, I’m currently offline for the holidays—which means I’m busy either
A. Administrative offices will be closed; however, designated individuals will be on call to respond in the event that an urgent matter arises.
.
The vice-chancellor of [X] University is extremely pleased to announce the winter vacations from the 25th of December to the 6th of January 20XX. All the offices of the University Campus enclosed for the said period. Have a safe holiday and enjoy the break.
I want to answer every question you could possibly have in my out of office message, because otherwise you’re going to text my personal number and disturb whatever I am out of the office for. NOPE.
At the discretion of the president and with the subsequent approval of the vice presidents and deans of each division or college, an early dismissal may be authorized on the working day prior to a university holiday allowing staff members to leave campus at 2 p.m. — provided it is acceptable to their supervisor, all time-critical work is completed and no urgent business is anticipated.
The worst one I ever received was from a coworker (senior to me, but not my manager) many years ago. I’ll paraphrase it as my memory isn’t great:
I am currently out of the store on holidays.We will get back to work on (insert date). If there is something urgent, you can inform me by sending me an email me with the “URGENT” reference in its title and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Apologies, but I am currently knee deep in sushi and shrines on the other side of the world in Japan. I will be back to the usual tea and crumpets when I return to the office on [DAY OF WEEK], [DATE]. If you have an urgent query about [BUSINESS] before then, please don’t hesitate to contact [NAME] in my absence. [EMAIL]. Thanks so much.
I’ll be at a work off-site and will have limited availability by phone and email until ___, please contact ___ for immediate needs about ____ otherwise I will respond as soon as possible”
'The very fact you were content to type out your query long hand and settle back to wait for a reply suggests you can wait' (Credit: Getty Images)
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.
It’s common practice to prepare an email vacation autoresponder for when you are going to be away from work for a lengthy period of time. But in many cases that isn’t enough to give you – and those who may be wanting to reach you – peace of mind while you are gone.
Thank you so much for your email. I love it already. It’s wrapped so nicely in its charming subject line that I just knew this message was going to be something special. Gifts like these just don’t come around every day.
Thank you for your correspondence. I am currently away from my computer and may be delayed in my response.
“Many people reveal details about their personal lives in an OOO — like where and when they’re traveling,” Tim Sadler, CEO of Tessian, explains in an email interview. “Whether done on social media or in an auto-reply message on email, this arms hackers with the information they need to either craft a convincing email targeted at the OOO employee or impersonate the person who is on vacation and target one of their colleagues.”
I’ll be sure to reply to your message when I wade through my inbox upon my return. If your message is time-sensitive, please send an email to [Contact Name] at [contact email].
Of course he presumably meant working on a trial – yay for regional preposition differences!