How's that for an out-of-office message? Probably not ideal. As a working professional, emails are your lifeline. And even when you're not around to respond, you need to let senders know you're not actually ignoring them.
She continues: “However, there should be a way for whoever is emailing you to have an urgent request handled, and that should be included as part of your OOO as well as being known to your work team (supervisor and colleagues). That might look like including a coworker's email on your OOO or it might simply involve setting a forwarding rule for while you're away, so that your email goes to the colleague who's covering.”
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It is entirely possible to enjoy a podcast and hate voicemail, nothing about issues with human voices.
So, skip saying you are in Las Vegas attending your favorite conference with the hopes of seeing a show or finding some time to play the slot machines. Even if other colleagues are going to the same conference, just say you will have limited email accessibility for the week and will return the message as soon as possible. Rather than an Instagram post with the view outside your window and naming the hotel as soon as you arrive, save the photos for a limited audience upon your return. Finally, consider adjusting your settings so that your out of office message is sent to contacts only.
In this post, I’ll share what makes a good voicemail greeting — and the best voicemail greeting scripts you can use.
Agreed. Every time you are in a meeting is overkill. For some people they are never not in meetings.
I ran a nonprofit organization staffed entirely be volunteers (I was one). After one too many people incensed that we did not follow up to their emails within two hours, we had to include an OOO message that said we were a volunteer organization, and any request may take up to two weeks to process. Please email again if you have not heard from us by then.
Oh heavens no. All I ask of an out of office is that it tells me when the person will be back (if known) and who I can contact in the interim.
Usually, people take leave for vacation, business traveling, maternity leave, or sickness. Additionally, sometimes employees who will no longer work in a company also need to provide an out-of-office message for their customers, especially if they are in a high-level management position working closely with those customers.
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I have a deep paranoia about out of office messages ever since a previous (bad) job. Every year I worked on a huge project that took nine months, and three separate weeks (or more) of that involved correcting, editing, and reviewing a dense 300 page document.
I do find the above quite amusing, but it would never fly at my place of work! lol!
15. "This is Bond. James Bond. Okay, it's really [your last name]. [Your first name] [your last name]. I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done helping M16 save the world — which will probably be tomorrow at the latest. Have a good day."
Right, Outlook has that auto-display of OOO messages, so at least I know so-and-so won’t be seeing it for days and I either adjust expectations accordingly or I just email someone else.
Not just that, but some e-mail systems (Gmail comes to mind) have taken to hiding the signature underneath a little expando-button. You don’t see it unless you go looking.
When one of my colleagues went on vacation, he sent an out-of-office message that was both clever and smart. First, he sent the recipient on an imaginary scavenger hunt to "the highest peak of the tallest mountain." He used humorous absurdity to make it clear that he would not be checking email while he was away.
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.