Hello, We are currently closed for the holiday. If it’s something urgent you can email [name] at [email]. Kind regards. [Name/signature]
I can see why you’d have a negative reaction to it–that’s how I felt the first several times I heard about these kinds of emails–but I don’t think it’s actually rude (unless they’re saying “if I get emails from Ali G, I’m deleting them”). The wording of the email can be rude, but the general concept of this kind of email isn’t.
.
My bank still does that, and it seems to serve a good purpose there–I appreciate knowing if I should call someone else to get things done that day.
An out of office message shows your professionalism by informing others of your unavailability. Such messages generally include an apology for the inconvenience, a reason for not replying right away, the time the receiver can expect a response and an alternative person they can contact if there is something urgent.
An out of office message is basically a quality of life feature both for you and your business contacts. By warning your clients that you won’t be able to reply to their message right away you save the time they might have wasted on follow ups. You also won’t lose prospects who might’ve believed that you’re ignoring their request otherwise.
Free www.grammarly.com https://www.grammarly.com/blog/hilarious-out-of-office-message/
The root of that question, as pointed out in this New York Times article, is that taking vacation can be a bit emotionally conflicting.
I am in [COUNTRY] [DATE] to [DATE] so email replies may be tardy due to the curvature of the earth and the sun. Thank you.
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.
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.
If you’re using Gmail, you’ll find settings for out of office messages by clicking the cog icon on the main screen:
I’m currently out of the office between [DATES], as I’m attending the yearly WordCamp. Perhaps you will also be there, and we can meet in person.
Some people keep theirs quite corporate and formal, adopting a to-the-point notification, i.e.:
This would go over like a lead balloon at my company, and, were that person on my team, I’d tell them to change it. It does have a connotation of “when I feel like it” about it, and most of my team is not high enough up the food chain to take that sort of stance (and the ones who are high enough up are client-facing and have the good sense not to do so).
Hoo boy, have I got some PTSD from Old Job about out of office autoreplies. Exboss was such a stickler for them and actually enforced her expectations as official policy. Meaning if you didn’t do it to her exact specs, she’d call you back to the office to do it (which no one did) and read you the riot act afterwards while threatening to write you up for insubordination. She demanded them any time that we were away from our desk for longer than 30 minutes and for anything other than a meeting. So training in the conference room down the hall, a work lunch with teammates, leaving an hour early for an appointment, arriving late for an appointment, even working from home, all required OOO alerts.
Yep. I work with people all over the US so I have no idea who is at home or actually in the office.
Thank you for your msg. I am currently out of the office and will not return until November 10th.