With all these changes, the simplest tasks come saddled with a lot of extra questions. Take the out-of-office message. Do you really need an out-of-office autoresponse if you haven’t seen an office since March? The simple answer is yes.
I do that for most cases. Occasionally I’ll change it to “I’m out of the country and will not have phone or email access.”
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I worked with a guy years ago who would update his voicemail greeting literally every time he left the office.
Hi, I am currently in [COUNTRY]. My inbox didn’t join me on this trip, so I’ll be sure to answer your message as soon as I return stateside on [DAY OF WEEK], [DATE]. If your matter is urgent, please contact [EMAIL]. Thanks and happy holidays!
We had someone at my old job whose auto-reply stated that they were at a “White Privilege Conference”. Granted, the conference was about dismantling White Privilege, but to someone outside our work who didn’t know that, I imagine that got quite the reaction!
Thank you for your email. Your message is important to me and I will respond as soon as possible. Thank you!
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I have a colleague who usually does different ones for internal and external: internal will be “I’m currently in the pouring rain in a tent in the Cotswolds. I get back (hopefully without trenchfoot!) on Monday Date. Whilst I’m getting soggy please contact Email Address.” and external is just “I’m on annual leave between X and Y and will not be accessing my email. Please contact Email Address if you need assistance during this time.” We all really like their internal ones.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was funny and not annoying! I’m with Alison that it’s probably just a little wordy, but there’s no problem with the humor.
I had a coworker once who hated it when she got somebody’s out of office message. I asked her why it got her so bent out of shape. “Because then I have to wait until they get back to send the message again!”
One day, the boss said I needed to start answering phones, and did not accept my pushback.
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With all that in mind, take a look at the following tips and tricks and six examples to make your automatic responses more effective:
Happy Holidays is used only around Christmas in the USA. Traditionally, it was meant to include both Christmas and New Year's Day. We don't usually say "Happy Holiday" at other times, although there's nothing wrong with saying it.
This message is automated because I won’t be in the office until [DATE]. I will get back to you as soon as possible when I’m back at the office.
“For the Symantec office, I send holiday wishes for the employees’ holiday out of office. I wish all the employees have lots of fun and adventure during the recreational holiday period. Have a happy holiday.”
Thank you for your email! I am on vacation. Vacations are not for checking email, so I won’t be doing that. Fortunately, we rarely encounter life and death situations in the world of [INDUSTRY TYPE], and aren’t we all glad for that? If you think I’m checking email because you just received an email from me, that is only because I figured out the pixies that send emails on a schedule. Really, I’m not checking email.