Have you ever received or written an out-of-office message that you really liked? If you’re up to sharing them, we’d love to see your favorites. Don’t forget to share this post with friends and colleagues!
When we have people go on maternity leave we normally arrange with them for mail to be forwarded directly to the person covering their leave, (but I’m in the UK so normally they will be out for 6-12 months)
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I hate when senders ignore the instructions in my OOO message. Usually, my message is something simple like: “I am out [Dates], returning to the office [Date]. Please contact Jane (jane’s email address) in my absence. General [department] questions may be sent to [general dept email address].” To me that says if you are sending me anything then I won’t see it until I return. If you have something you need to be resolved right away, you can contact Jane or send it to our department inbox (where it should be going anyway).
Visuals always work whether used in messages or elsewhere. In fact, communications that include images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only messages.
I am out of the office July 15–25. In the event of an emergency, please contact Yuko Kawakami at [email protected].
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.
Thank you for your email. I will be out of the office from *date* to *date* and will have limited access to email / will not have access to email. If you require immediate assistance, please contact *Name* at *email*. I will do my best to respond promptly to your email upon my return.
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I think that’s maybe something you need to deal with internally with the person/people who you’re asking people to speak to instead – I think if you start to ask the original sender to update you or cc you then it’s going to start to annoy people that they are doing the running around, plus not everyone will do it.
6. Out of Office Template #6 For the Person Who Likes to Live on the Edge (of HR Protocol) Hello, I’m currently offline for the holidays—which means I’m busy either
German vehicle-maker Daimler has an innovative approach to holiday email, which many people about to return from holiday may well wish their company would copy, writes William Kremer.
Thank you for your message. I am currently out of the office, with no email access. I will be returning on (Date of Return).
Pet peeve: a fe people I know use the OOO reply to say something like ‘Have a great day!’ It is on all the time, and for no helpful reason.
My colleague does that just for holidays.. it does say who else to contact, but tbh if I’m emailing him a couple of days before he’s due to return then I’m not massively impressed at the insinuation I should take the action of remembering to resend it… in reality I think he probably does read *some* emails but clearly views the OOO as a way to absolve responsibility if he misses something..
Note: Sending automatic replies to anyone outside my organization will send your automatic reply to every email, including newsletters, advertisements, and potentially, junk email. If you want to send automatic replies to those outside your organization, we recommend choosing My contacts only.
I read it as coming from a person who was overly frustrated with their regular OOO being ignored. It’s one of my pet peeves – the OOO clearly says I’m not there and to contact Bob, yet the sender continues to reply, never contacts Bob, then blows up at me when I return that their work is delayed. I would love to be able to send something like this message in the letter but it wouldn’t fly at my office.
If you’re using Gmail, you’ll find settings for out of office messages by clicking the cog icon on the main screen: