The ability to schedule your OOO replies was literally the best feature ever to come to Outlook, and it took way too long.
Don’t be afraid to use a pop cultural reference that the audience would recognize. Instead of bemoaning your absence, they’ll have something fun and familiar to laugh at.
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Duh. We're in the travel industry. Of course, an out of office message involving dolphin-speak would be at the top of our list! Who doesn't love a dolphin?
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Ta-da, you are done! You are one step closer to your vacation. Remember, just because you are away, it doesn’t mean you cannot make someone’s day with a funky OOO email!
I don’t think a lot of people working there made a habit of doing that, which is why a lot of people felt the no external OOO policy was excessive.
That’s so weird! Email is the correct way to reach a teleworking person, that’s the worst place for an OOO message. Stick an OOO sign on your physical office door, by all means!
I do typically come back to hundreds of emails, and I prioritize what to read – things from my boss/leadership are first, followed by communication from my direct reports. I also sort them by conversation thread and read the end of them first, which reduces the burden.
Braden also recommends using HubSpot's out-of-office email generator to create your OOO message.
Hey, there! I’m out of the office this week, but my Twitter signal is always on. Seriously, I’ve got robotic wonder thumbs! (No, not really.) I never fail to tweet fascinating stories about how people can win big with their marketing efforts. So, until I’m back at my desk, won’t you follow me [LINK]? Whether you follow me or not, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can upon returning to my desk on [DATE].
As you probably already know, sitting down all day at work can be harmful for your health – especially if you’re not exercising outside of work. But don’t worry, there are plenty of exercises designed for those who are struggling to combine a busy work life as well as a fitness regime. Is staff productivity impeded by a dated office design?
Our auto-replies to outside people are two or three paragraphs long though, which feels ridiculous but is actually necessary.
Unfortunately I didn’t save it, but I once received of office reply that included a synopsis of the “comedic novel” they were working on during their time off.
My grandboss used to put in his OOO: ‘I’m out of the office. If you need x or y, contact Andy or Jane. They know stuff.
That’s just sloppy. We always check who will be available, because usually someone is. We also have a service address, and usually use that for OOO–messages. Then the ones working are responsible for those messages. That said, in my branch nobody seriously awaits an answer in July, but I’m in academica.
When one of my colleagues is out of the office, he doesn’t mess around. In fact, he’s turned his auto-responses into a running series of commentary from fictional cartoon character Troy McClure.
I find the out of office message from the TikTok video overly cutesy and long winded. It seems like that is the culture at that office, but I would roll my eyes if I got an out of office message like that. Just let me know that you’re gone, when you’ll be back, and who I can contact if I need something before then. I have gotten some out of office messages where it just says the person is out and doesn’t say who to contact instead, which is annoying because I have to contact a lot of third party companies, so it’s not like I just know-oh Jane is out so Fergus is covering. I have to call the other company and try to figure out who can help.