There are a million reasons why people feel the need to sheepishly telegraph that they’ll be checking email while OOO: a toxic workplace culture; a set of bad managers who don’t model work/life balance or use manipulative tactics like saying, ‘feel free to take some time if you need it’; companies that are so focused on lean growth they don’t have anyone to pick up the slack when an employee opts to take time off. These days, merely having the confidence to step away from your job by taking the vacation time granted to you in the terms of your employment agreement is still a privilege in the American workforce.
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, I am currently out of the office and will not return until 3rd November.
.
Agreed! A bit of warmth is fine, sure, but it’s not the place for chattiness — that’s for talking to an actual person. I want an OOO message to tell me that the person is out, when they’ll be back, and who I should contact in the meantime if need be. No objections to multiple options there, whether it’s “X for llama grooming issues and Y for llama tea parties” or “X for routine questions, Y if it’s urgent, Z if it’s an emergency,” but I want to be able to absorb the useful info quickly and move on.
At my current workplace, I got an OOO about someone being on sabbatical and off driving a vintage VW bus. Loved that one. But also got one about someone bringing a tiny human into the world – that was a weird overshare.
250? That could easily be only 2-3 days of emails. You can’t declare “email bankruptcy” for only a few days worth of emails. I average about 200 a day, so if I was on vaca and came back to only 250 mails, I would be putting in a ticket with IT, thinking something was broken.
I work in a culture where even when you say you won’t have access to email, you are expected to be checking. I include this only on the internal auto-response, so that the people in my company know that when I say I won’t have access to email (which is also explained in the email), I mean it. Nothing else seems to work.
It is not appropriate to say in the message that you will get back on the day you return from your vacation. You may have a lot of work to take care of on your first day after getting back; you don’t want to promise something you won’t be able to fulfil.
The only thing I add to that boilerplate is if I’m working but mostly unavailable.
Sorry I missed you. I’ll be out of the office and slow to respond until after the break. While I have you, though, help settle an argument among my colleagues and me: Die Hard 1: The Office Christmas Party Gone Wrong. Die Hard 2: Airport Conspiracy. Die Hard 3: Samuel L. Jackson. Enough said. Die Hard 4: Cyberthreat. Die Hard 5: You should probably not pick this one. Impossible! It’s like choosing a favorite child!
You may also want to include bullet points of what is in progress so that your client knows you’re on top of things. That will also likely reduce the amount of emails sitting in your inbox when you return. Unlike a more generalized email (like the one I’ve provided) that you can send en masse, you’ll want to set aside some time to send more personalized emails out.
Others like to take the opportunity to inject a little personality and make the reader smile, like our very own Rachael’s summertime out-of-office:
Are you always entertaining your colleagues with useless facts? That doesn’t need to stop just because you’re going on holidays.
People really just need to know that I’m either definitely not going to reply (annual leave) or might but delayed (all day meetings) plus when I’m back and who to contact if it is urgent.
You crossed everything off your to-do list and cleared out your inbox. There’s one last thing for you to do: Write and activate the out-of-office message on your email.
9. "Hey, this is [your name]. Thanks for reaching out. I'm busy at the moment, but if you leave your name, number, and message, I'll return your call.”
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.
This isn’t about an off-key OOO message, but one where a rogue OOO message drove our department insane for a day and a half.